The role of neuroticism and extraversion in the stress–anxiety and stress–depression relationships

Abstract

Though there is a considerable amount of research supporting the association between stressful life events and major depression, there is a paucity of research concerning a range of other life stress constructs, non-depressive disorders, the role of stable personality traits, and gender differences. This study addresses these deficits by: (a) focusing on the association between interpersonal and non-interpersonal chronic life stress (CLS) and both depressive and anxiety disorders, (b) examining the roles of neuroticism and low extraversion in these associations, and (c) assessing gender differences. Participants were 603 adolescents from a study examining risk factors for emotional disorders. Depression and social phobia were associated with interpersonal CLS, with neuroticism partially accounting for these associations. Low extraversion partially accounted for the association between social phobia and interpersonal CLS. Depression was also associated with non-interpersonal CLS, but only in females. This study provides preliminary evidence for the importance of personality variables in explaining shared associations between stress and depression. Additionally, the stress-social phobia relationship is highlighted, with no evidence supporting an association between other anxiety disorders and CLS.

Neural correlates of personality dimensions and affective measures during the anticipation of emotional stimuli

“…The lack of correlation between activity in the amygdalar region and trait anxiety is unexpected, given the known involvement of the amygdala in anxiety disorders (Uliaszek et al 2010) and a recent finding of a correlation between trait anxiety and amygdalar activity in a fear conditioning task (Sehlmeyer et al in press). One reason in our study could be the rather low level of threat in our setting and in the task itself, which might not have evoked a sufficient level of anxiety-related amygdalar activity.…”

Mediational Effects of Life Events on the Relationship Between Personality and Behavioral Problems among Depressed and Non-Depressed Adolescents

“…In addition, once adolescents become depressed, they might leave personality scars to lower the threshold of personalities and negative life events for the subsequent occurrence of depression [6], which further support kindling hypothesis [12]. Notably, scar mechanism may also have its genetic basis because there were share genetic or environmental backgrounds with emotional/behavioral problems, depression, cognition, neuroticism, and negative dependent events [31,33,34]. The emotional function and cognitive function were linked through the genetic polymorphism of the neural process [30].…”

The Relation of Dysfunctional Cognitive Schemas and Personality Dimensions in Generalized Anxiety Disorder

“…This pattern of results is consistent with other studies which found low scores on these dimensions of personality in clinical samples. Specifically, these studies not only showed low scores on Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Emotional Stability (high Neuroticism), but also they revealed a relationship between these personality dimensions and the presence of anxiety and depression symptomatology (29)(30). Not only are the aforementioned low scores of these personality dimensions associated with anxiety and depression symptomatology, but along with low Agreeableness, these four characteristics are typically associated with almost all types of symptoms of clinical disorders (31).…”