Association of personality and work conditions with depressive symptoms.
BACKGROUND
Previous studies have found a relationship between job-related stress and depressive symptoms in different occupational groups, and that personality may modify the risk of developing depressive symptoms. We aimed to examine the association of personality and other individual and work conditions with depressive symptoms.


METHODS
A sample of 498 teachers answered a questionnaire concerning individual and work characteristics, some job-related perceptions, and the wish to change jobs. Depressive symptoms were measured by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale (CES-D) and personality was measured by the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI-125).


RESULTS
Depressive symptoms were associated with female gender, age, low job satisfaction, high job stress, the wish to change jobs, working at a public school, and with higher scores on harm avoidance and novelty seeking and lower scores on self-directedness.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results underline the influence of personality traits on the development of depressive symptoms independently of other individual characteristics and the occupational context.
Jurado
Dolores
D
Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Facultad de Medicina, University of Granada, Avenida de Madrid 11, E-18012 Granada, Spain. djurado@ugr.es
Gurpegui
Manuel
M
Moreno
Obdulia
O
Fernández
M Carmen
MC
Luna
Juan D
JD
Gálvez
Ramón
R
D000328:Adult; D002322:Career Mobility; D002605:Character; D003710:Demography; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005178:Faculty / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D010551:Personality; D015995:Prevalence; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012931:Social Environment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013694:Temperament; D017132:Workplace / Q000523:psychology*