Personality change predicts self-reported mental and physical health.
OBJECTIVE
Personality dimensions are known to predict mortality and other health outcomes, but almost no research has assessed the effects of changes in personality traits on physical and mental health outcomes. In this article, we examined the effects of changes in the Big Five personality dimensions on health as assessed by the Short Form Health Survey (SF-36).


METHODS
Respondents were 11,105 Australian adults aged 20-79 years (52.7% female). Latent difference score modeling was used to examine whether personality change over a 4-year period was associated with mental and physical health, and whether these effects were moderated by birth cohort.


RESULTS
Increases in Conscientiousness and Extraversion were found to be associated with improved mental and physical health, whereas increased Neuroticism was linked with poorer health. The nature of these associations varied significantly by birth cohort.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings have implications for understanding how changes in personality traits over time are related to health, and could be used to aid the development of effective health promotion strategies targeted to specific personality traits and birth cohorts.
Centre for Health Initiatives, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia. cmagee@uow.edu.au
Christopher A
CA
Magee
Patrick C L
PC
Heaven
Leonie M
LM
Miller
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005120:Extraversion, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010551:Personality; D010552:Personality Assessment; D057566:Self Report