Dataset Information

The reciprocal impacts of adversity and personality traits: A prospective longitudinal study of growth, change, and the power of personality.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

We integrate the study of post-traumatic growth with personality science by examining the reciprocal effects of adversity and core personality traits. We implemented conceptual (i.e., incorporating personality traits into the study of adversity-related growth, examining trait-specific and configural personality change, and adopting a cumulative approach to adversity) and methodological (i.e., three-wave prospective design, assessing many life events, sampling from populations likely to experience adversity) innovations to advance the study of personality development and of the generality of adversity-related growth.

Method

A diverse sample (41% nonwhite, 48% low-income, 68% female, M_age = 44, 30% diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder) participated in a three-wave prospective longitudinal study (N = 258-128 across waves). Participants completed a personality inventory and a battery of life-event surveys (including 105 events) at each wave.

Results

Personality was generally stable from trait-specific and configural perspectives, and all traits were correlated with adversity. All traits, particularly Extraversion and Conscientiousness, predicted adversity. Adversity predicted increases in Emotionality and decreases in Agreeableness.

Conclusions

Although personality growth is not the typical response to adversity within a 3-year period, findings underscore the real-world impact of personality, and they provide some support for developmental theories emphasizing the effects of life events.

SUBMITTER: Rakhshani A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7415531 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BackgroundPrevious research suggests that less emotionally stable, less conscientious, less extraverted, and less agreeable women tend to suffer from higher fear of childbirth and experience their delivery as worse. Moreover, there is evidence that birth characteristics and unexpected incidents during delivery may impact women's birth experiences. However, it remains unknown whether the role of personality in subjective birth experiences varies between women with different birth characteristics.MethodsWe used data from the Maternal Anxiety in Relation to Infant Development (MARI) Study, a regional-epidemiological study among pregnant women, who were prospectively followed up in multiple waves across the peripartum period. During pregnancy, personality was assessed with the short version of the Big Five Inventory. The Wijma Delivery Expectancy/ Experience Questionnaire was used to measure fear of childbirth (version A) during pregnancy and subjective birth experiences (version B) within the first 10 days after delivery.ResultsLinear regressions revealed that lower levels of emotional stability, agreeableness, and extraversion predicted higher fear of childbirth during pregnancy. Moreover, personality affected subjective birth experiences especially in women with specific birth characteristics: Lower emotional stability predicted worse subjective birth experiences in women with (vs. without) a preterm delivery, and higher conscientiousness predicted worse subjective birth experiences in women with an emergency cesarean section (vs. spontaneous delivery). Subjective birth experiences were also worse in less emotionally stable and less open women with (general) anesthesia (vs. no anesthesia) during delivery. Finally, higher emotional stability predicted a subjective birth experience that was worse than expected, particularly in multiparous women and women without anesthesia during delivery.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that less emotionally stable, less conscientious, and less open women tend to experience their delivery as worse particularly in case of unexpected incidents (i.e., preterm delivery, emergency cesarean section, and necessity of anesthetics) and might thus profit from early targeted interventions.