Citation

Hakulinen C, Elovainio M, Pulkki-Råback L, Virtanen M, Kivimaki M, Jokela M. Depress. Anxiety 2015; 32(7): 461-470.

Affiliation

Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/da.22376

PMID

26014798

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Personality is suggested to be a major risk factor for depression but large-scale individual participant meta-analyses on this topic are lacking.

METHOD: Data from 10 prospective community cohort studies with 117,899 participants (mean age 49.0 years; 54.7% women) were pooled for individual participant meta-analysis to determine the association between personality traits of the five-factor model and risk of depressive symptoms.

RESULTS: In cross-sectional analysis, low extraversion (pooled standardized regression coefficient (B) = -.08; 95% confidence interval = -0.11, -0.04), high neuroticism (B =.39; 0.32, 0.45), and low conscientiousness (B = -.09; -0.10, -0.06) were associated with depressive symptoms. Similar associations were observed in longitudinal analyses adjusted for baseline depressive symptoms (n = 56,735; mean follow-up of 5.0 years): low extraversion (B = -.03; -0.05, -0.01), high neuroticism (B =.12; 0.10, 0.13), and low conscientiousness (B = -.04; -0.06, -0.02) were associated with an increased risk of depressive symptoms at follow-up. In turn, depressive symptoms were associated with personality change in extraversion (B = -.07; 95% CI = -0.12, -0.02), neuroticism (B =.23; 0.09, 0.36), agreeableness (B = -.09; -0.15, -0.04), conscientiousness (B = -.14; -0.21, -0.07), and openness to experience (B = -.04; -0.08, 0.00).

CONCLUSIONS: Personality traits are prospectively associated with the development of depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms, in turn, are associated with changes in personality that may be temporary or persistent.

Language: en