Psychological distress and neuroticism: a two-wave panel study.
The temporal relationship between psychological distress and Neuroticism, both measured at two points eight months apart, was examined in a representative sample of 225 adult residents in Canberra, using cross-lagged panel correlation and latent variable LISREL analysis. Psychological distress was assessed by the 30-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-30). Because the synchronous and autocorrelations differed significantly, the interpretation of the significant difference between the cross-lagged correlations was problematic. The cross-lagged path coefficients in the LISREL models were not significantly positive, suggesting that the temporal relationship between these two variables was spurious and due to error variance. The test-retest correlation was significantly higher for Neuroticism than for the GHQ-30, implying that Neuroticism is more a measure of a relatively stable personality characteristic and the GHQ-30 more one of transient psychological distress.
Cramer
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Department of Social Sciences, Loughborough University, Leicestershire, UK.
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009497:Neurotic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D010551:Personality; D010552:Personality Assessment; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires