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Personality traits and body weight: Evidence using sibling comparisons.

ABSTRACT: Past research has shown that personality traits relate to body weight, but this relationship may be confounded by unobserved family-level characteristics such as genetic endowments.The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the association between personality traits, as measured by the Big Five taxonomy, and body weight among young adults is spurious owing to shared family background.Participants were drawn from the full (n = 14,366) and family (n = 2813) samples of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). The study employed family-fixed effects to eliminate shared family background factors that might affect personality traits and body weight simultaneously.Among the Big Five personality traits, only conscientiousness showed a robust association with body weight, including body mass index (BMI) and obesity risk. These results were robust to adjustments for family-fixed effects, which indicates that the association between conscientiousness and body weight is generally not confounded by unobserved family-level characteristics shared by siblings. A one-standard-deviation increase in conscientiousness was associated with a decrease in BMI by 0.89 (equivalent to a 2.5 kg decrease in weight for an individual with an average height of the sample) and a 12% reduction in the probability of being obese. This study also found some suggestive evidence of gender and racial/ethnic differences. The association between conscientiousness and obesity was larger and statistically significant only for women, and conscientiousness was most strongly associated with obesity among Hispanic people.Conscientiousness is associated with decreased body weight net of unobserved background characteristics that are shared by siblings. The results suggest that interventions that develop personality traits may have "spillover effects"; in other words, they may also help reduce obesity.

SUBMITTER: Kim J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4970915 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Personality traits and body weight: Evidence using sibling comparisons.

Kim Jinho J

Social science & medicine (1982) 20160701

<h4>Rationale</h4>Past research has shown that personality traits relate to body weight, but this relationship may be confounded by unobserved family-level characteristics such as genetic endowments.<h4>Objective</h4>The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the association between personality traits, as measured by the Big Five taxonomy, and body weight among young adults is spurious owing to shared family background.<h4>Methods</h4>Participants were drawn from the full (n = 14,366) ...[more]

PMID: 27394194

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Project description:BackgroundOverweight and obesity is a serious problem worldwide related to cardiovascular and other diseases. Personality traits are associated with the abnormal body mass indices (BMIs) indicative of overweight and obesity. However, the links between personality traits and BMI have been little studied in Korea.MethodsWe evaluated the association between personality traits and BMI in men and women using the rural Ansung and urban Ansan cohort from the Korean Genome Epidemiology Study, and the Kangbuk Samsung Hospital Cohort Study datasets. A shorter version of the original Revised Neuroticism-Extroversion-Openness Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) was used to measure the five-factor model of personality (neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness).ResultsData from a total of 1,495 men (mean age 60.0 ± 9.8 years; mean BMI 24.3 ± 3.0 kg/m2) and 2,547 women (mean age 47.0 ± 15.5 years; mean BMI 22.8 ± 3.4 kg/m2) were included in the analysis. Compared with the normal weight groups, overweight and obese men scored higher on openness to experience and lower on conscientiousness. Overweight and obese women scored lower on neuroticism and openness to experience and higher on agreeableness. Extraversion was positively associated with BMI in men (β=0.032, P<0.05). BMI and waist circumference were significantly increased in individuals who were less dutiful. In women, neuroticism was inversely associated with BMI (β=-0.026, P<0.05). Openness to experience was negatively, and agreeableness was positively, associated with BMI (openness to experience: β=-0.072, agreeableness β=0.068) and waist circumference (openness to experience: β=-0.202, agreeableness: β=0.227) (P<0.05).ConclusionPersonality traits were associated with underweight, overweight, and obesity in men and women. Increased understanding of the underlying factors contributing to this association will aid in the prevention and treatment of abnormal BMI.

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Personality traits and body weight: Evidence using sibling comparisons.

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Personality traits and body weight: Evidence using sibling comparisons.

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