Defining Distress Tolerance in a Structural Model of Big Five Personality Domains

Abstract

Distress tolerance (DT)--willingness to face internal discomforts--has a fuzzy boundary with Neuroticism (low Emotional Stability), raising questions about its independent contribution to mental health. We investigated DT’s overlap with Neuroticism and other Big Five factors in a structural model of personality and personality-disorder features in samples of university students (N = 1,025), emotional-disorder patients (N = 225), and substance-use patients (N = 210). In exploratory factor analyses, we found that DT indicators clustered with Neuroticism and were essentially unrelated to other Big Five domains. Big Five personality dimensions collectively explained approximately 70% of variation in DT indicators in this model. We conclude that DT and Neuroticism are near neighbors in conceptual space and speculate that much of the observed correlation between DT and mental-health outcomes in the literature may be carried by shared Neuroticism variance. We suggest that clearer distinctions between the two constructs in empirical research could improve our understanding of DT’s unique role in the development and treatment of psychopathology.