IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/geronb/v76y2021i1p44-55..html

Do Big Five Personality Traits Moderate the Effects of Stressful Life Events on Health Trajectories? Evidence From the Health and Retirement Study
[Stress and coping across the lifespan]

Author

Listed:
  • Lauren L Mitchell
  • Rachel Zmora
  • Jessica M Finlay
  • Eric Jutkowitz
  • Joseph E Gaugler
  • Brent Donnellan

Abstract

ObjectivesTheory suggests that individuals with higher neuroticism have more severe negative reactions to stress, though empirical work examining the interaction between neuroticism and stressors has yielded mixed results. The present study investigated whether neuroticism and other Big Five traits moderated the effects of recent stressful life events on older adults’ health outcomes.MethodData were drawn from the subset of Health and Retirement Study participants who completed a Big Five personality measure (N = 14,418). We used latent growth curve models to estimate trajectories of change in depressive symptoms, self-rated physical health, and C-reactive protein levels over the course of 10 years (up to six waves). We included Big Five traits and stressful life events as covariates to test their effects on each of these three health outcomes. We examined stressful life events within domains of family, work/finances, home, and health, as well as a total count across all event types.ResultsBig Five traits and stressful life events were independently related to depressive symptoms and self-rated health. There were no significant interactions between Big Five traits and stressful life events. C-reactive protein levels were unrelated to Big Five traits and stressful life events.DiscussionFindings suggest that personality and stressful life events are important predictors of health outcomes. However, we found little evidence that personality moderates the effect of major stressful events across a 2-year time frame. Any heightened reactivity related to high neuroticism may be time-limited to the months immediately after a major stressful event.

Suggested Citation

  • Lauren L Mitchell & Rachel Zmora & Jessica M Finlay & Eric Jutkowitz & Joseph E Gaugler & Brent Donnellan, 2021. "Do Big Five Personality Traits Moderate the Effects of Stressful Life Events on Health Trajectories? Evidence From the Health and Retirement Study [Stress and coping across the lifespan]," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 76(1), pages 44-55.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:76:y:2021:i:1:p:44-55.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbaa075
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shevaun D. Neupert & David M. Almeida & Susan Turk Charles, 2007. "Age Differences in Reactivity to Daily Stressors: The Role of Personal Control," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 62(4), pages 216-225.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andrew Bertoli & Allan Dafoe & Robert Trager, 2024. "Leader age and international conflict: A regression discontinuity analysis," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 61(4), pages 643-658, July.
    2. Dormann, Christian & Brod, Sarah & Engler, Sarah, 2017. "Demographic Change and Job Satisfaction in Service Industries - The Role of Age and Gender on the Effects of Customer-Related Social Stressors on Affective Well-Being," SMR - Journal of Service Management Research, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 1(1), pages 57-70.
    3. Na, Ling & Yang, Lixia & Mezo, Peter G. & Liu, Rong, 2022. "Age disparities in mental health during the COVID19 pandemic: The roles of resilience and coping," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    4. André Reimer & Andreas Schmitt & Dominic Ehrmann & Bernhard Kulzer & Norbert Hermanns, 2017. "Reduction of diabetes-related distress predicts improved depressive symptoms: A secondary analysis of the DIAMOS study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(7), pages 1-10, July.
    5. Rachel Koffer & Johanna Drewelies & David M Almeida & David E Conroy & Aaron L Pincus & Denis Gerstorf & Nilam Ram, 2019. "The Role of General and Daily Control Beliefs for Affective Stressor-Reactivity Across Adulthood and Old Age," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 74(2), pages 242-253.
    6. Frank J. Infurna & Denis Gerstorf & Nilam Ram & Jürgen Schupp & Gert G. Wagner, 2011. "Long-Term Antecedents and Outcomes of Perceived Control," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 355, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    7. Gerstorf, Denis & Heckhausen, Jutta & Ram, Nilam & Infurna, Frank J. & Schupp, Jürgen & Wagner, Gert, 2014. "Perceived Personal Control Buffers Terminal Decline in Well-Being," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 29(3), pages 612-625.
    8. Robinette, Jennifer W. & Charles, Susan T. & Mogle, Jacqueline A. & Almeida, David M., 2013. "Neighborhood cohesion and daily well-being: Results from a diary study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 174-182.
    9. Shevaun D. Neupert & Emily L. Smith & Margaret L. Schriefer, 2022. "A Coordinated Analysis of Physical Reactivity to Daily Stressors: Age and Proactive Coping Matter," Forecasting, MDPI, vol. 4(4), pages 1-15, November.
    10. Jennifer R. Turner & Jacqueline Mogle & Nikki Hill & Sakshi Bhargava & Laura Rabin, 2022. "Daily Memory Lapses and Affect: Mediation Effects on Life Satisfaction," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(5), pages 1991-2008, June.
    11. Rachel E KofferMS & Nilam RamPhD & David M AlmeidaPhD, 2018. "More than Counting: An Intraindividual Variability Approach to Categorical Repeated Measures," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 73(1), pages 87-99.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:76:y:2021:i:1:p:44-55.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/psychsocgerontology .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.