Big 5 personality and subjective well-being in Asian Americans: Testing optimism and pessimism as mediators.

Abstract

Understanding Asian Americans’ lives and challenges would be enhanced by examining group-specific contributors to subjective well-being (SWB). The components and predictors of SWB, as well as other dimensions of positive psychology, are understudied in mainstream psychological and Asian American literatures. The present study addressed this gap in the literature by (a) exploring multiple domains of SWB—hedonic, eudaimonic, social, physical, and financial well-being; (b) examining joint and distinct influences of Big 5 personality traits and outcome expectancies; and (c) considering experiences that foster life flourishing among Asian Americans. Asian American college freshmen (N = 456; 55.56% women; Mage = 17.95 years) completed self-report measures assessing their Big 5 personality tendencies, optimism and pessimism, and SWB. Confirmatory factor analytic findings supported the notion that SWB could be conceptualized as comprised of 5 distinct but related domains. Confirmatory factor analyses also indicated that optimism and pessimism were partially independent constructs. Structural equation models indicated that extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness were stronger predictors for domains of SWB than optimism or pessimism. Optimism partially mediated the relationships between extraversion and eudaimonic well-being as well as between neuroticism and physical well-being. Pessimism did not mediate the personality–SWB linkage. Results highlight the predictive impact of personality traits on SWB. Findings also illuminate indirect pathways of these influences through optimistic expectancies for personality and SWB domains, but unexpectedly not through pessimistic expectancies. Cultural considerations underlying these patterns, limitations, and future directions are discussed.

General mental ability, conscientiousness, and the work–family interface: A test of mediating pathways

“…Because these items were rated on different response scales, we computed their z ‐scores before creating the scale score ( α = 0.82), with higher values indicating higher levels of financial well‐being. The current scale converged strongly ( r = 0.83, N = 213) with the financial well‐being measure from Lui, Rollock, Chang, Leong, and Zamboanga () in our validation study.…”

Intergenerational cultural conflict, assertiveness, and adjustment among Asian Americans.

“…This bifactor structure underlying scores justifies the use of a mean scale score to assess overall subjective well-being (Chen et al, 2013;Jovanovic, 2015). The current version of the WeBS has been validated to assess subjective well-being among Asian American samples (Lui et al, 2016).…”

Personality and the Moderating Effect of Mood on Verbal Aggressiveness Risk Factor from Work Activity

“…These results are consistent with previous studies, such as the meta-analysis by O'Boyle et al [31] who found that EI had a significant positive relationship with "Extraversion", "Openness to experience", "Conscientiousness" and "Agreeableness", while it was the opposite with "Neuroticism". Joseph et al [30] emphasized the relationship between "Conscientiousness", "Extraversion" and Neuroticism" with EI, as did Lui et al [37], who demonstrated that "Mood" predicted wellbeing in individuals with high scores in "Extraversion", "Agreeableness" and "Conscientiousness". of According to our moderation analysis, "Neuroticism" alone would not have a significant direct effect on verbal aggressiveness.…”

“…It has likewise been shown that positiveness and optimism ("Mood") [33] favor positive interpretation of potentially stressful situations, contributing to improving their perception of their ability to control their surroundings, and thereby, their wellbeing [34][35][36]. However, the relationship between positiveness and wellbeing is stronger in persons with high scores on "Extraversion", "Agreeableness" and "Conscientiousness" [37].…”