Neuroticism and psychological distress: To what extent is their association due to person-environment correlation?

G. B. Ploubidis, S. Frangou

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

22 Scopus citations

Abstract

Objective: To examine to what extent the association between neuroticism and psychological distress is related to individuals' inherent vulnerability or their tendency to self-select high-risk environments or situations. Method: Data was drawn from both waves (1984/1985 and 1991) of the Health and Lifestyle Survey. Psychological distress was evaluated using the 30-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-30) and neuroticism was assessed with the Eysenck Personality Inventory. A checklist of life events was completed in the second wave only. A Latent State Trait model was estimated to decompose psychological distress into its environmental-contextual and individual-specific components. Results: Neuroticism accounted for 31 and 10% respectively of the variance of the environmental-contextual and individual-specific psychological distress components. Conclusion: Our results favour the notion that individuals with high-levels of neuroticism tend to self-select situations likely to lead to adversity and distress.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-5
Number of pages5
JournalEuropean Psychiatry
Volume26
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2011
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Neuroticism
  • Person-environment correlation
  • Psychological distress

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