The Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic was first reported in 2019 and was declared a global public health emergency in January 2020, by the World Health Organization (WHO) [1]. The consequences of the pandemic such as contagion and lockdown have had many psychological effects throughout the world [2, 3, 4, 5]. The WHO also stated global concerns regarding the pandemic's impact on mental health and psychosocial well-being [6].
In Canada, concerns about health, lockdown, unemployment, instability, as well as interruptions in daily routines during the pandemic influenced Canadians’ mental health [7]. It is reported that in the fall of 2020, the prevalence of positive mental health outcomes of Canadians dropped significantly compared to levels prior to the pandemic in 2019, 59.95% in 2020 compared to 66.71% in 2019 [7]. According to the Public Health Agency of Canada positive mental health continued to decline in 2021 and the COVID-19 pandemic adversely affected more than seven out of ten Canadians [8]. Also, results of a later survey on COVID-19 and Mental Health revealed that one in four (25%) Canadians over the age of 18 displayed symptoms of depression, anxiety, or posttraumatic stress disorder in spring 2021, an increase from one in five (21%) in fall 2020 [9].
It is possible that individual differences in thinking processes, feelings, behaviors, and emotions could lead people to respond differently during a public health crisis. For example, people with certain personality traits may respond to such public health crises in different ways [10]. Unfamiliar and uncertain situations are particularly likely to expose the influence of dispositional tendencies on people's daily experiences and actions [11]. Dynamic theories of personality support this argument, positing that differences in personality are more pronounced in situations that activate the traits [12, 13]. Therefore, since the COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with many stressors such as uncertainty, it is important to study the associations of personality with mental health.
Throughout the past decades, the five-factor model (FFM) has become widely accepted as a framework for explaining and describing personality characteristics. FFM consists of the dimensions of Neuroticism, Extroversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness [14]. Pre-pandemic research has shown that individuals' personalities are associated with well-being and contribute to the likelihood of developing mental health issues [15, 16], with Neuroticism and Extroversion having the strongest associations with mental health [17, 18], influencing the affective aspects of mental health, via biological and behavioral mechanisms [19].
Neuroticism is characterized by irritability, anger, sadness, anxiety, worry, hostility, and vulnerability [20], and is shown to be associated with multiple mental health problems [21, 22]. Individuals who score higher in Neuroticism are more prone to experience negative emotions [16, 23, 24], and mental health disorders such as depression, anxiety, somatic symptom, eating disorders, and substance use disorders [17, 25, 26, 27, 28]. In contrast, Extroversion is usually associated with more positive mental health [29]. For instance, individuals who score higher on Extroversion are more likely to engage in social activities that enhance and maintain their level of positive emotions [30, 31] and report higher levels of subjective well-being [23, 32, 33]. Openness to Experience is defined as an individual's tolerance for ambiguity and openness to new ideas [34]. It has also been linked with creativity, curiosity, adaptability, appreciation, and independence [35, 36]. Previous studies found that Openness to Experience was connected to overall wellbeing [37, 38, 39], and also other positive constructs such as positive emotions, personal growth, autonomy, purpose in life and independence [38, 40, 41, 42]. Conscientiousness refers to the level of responsibility, and organization that people exhibit and the qualities of being prudent, and dependable [43]. Conscientiousness has also been associated with active and functional problem-solving strategies under challenging situations, including seeking support, positive psychological adjustment, positive reinterpretation, and acceptance [44]. Research has shown that individuals who score high in Conscientiousness are less vulnerable to adverse effects of anxiety, depression, and stress [17, 45]. Agreeableness refers to the qualities of being warm, friendly, empathic, straightforward, trustworthy, and having a tendency toward prosocial behavior [46]. Agreeableness also captures patience, forgiveness, and a degree of tolerance of anger [40]. Agreeableness has been shown to be associated with positive affect, psychological well-being, and mental health [47, 48].
Literature regarding the pandemic's adverse mental health outcomes has been growing since its onset. Several studies have shown that people’s personality traits are associated with their mental health [40, 41], with Neuroticism and Extroversion being most strongly associated with mental health and well-being during the pandemic [49, 50, 51]. For instance, Shokrkon and Nicoladis (2021) gathered data from 1096 Canadian adults (880 females, 202 males, and 14 other genders; mean age = 26.47 years [SD = 9.5; range 18 to 86 years]) in the first summer of the pandemic in 2020. They measured Mental health using the short form of the Mental Health Continuum (MHC-SF) and personality traits using Goldberg's PIP Big-Five Factor Markers and also some demographic factors that are known to impact mental health (including age, gender, changes in social interactions during COVID-19, mental health history). They used hierarchical multivariate regression method to analyze their data. After controlling for demographic variables, their results showed a significant association between the personality traits of Extroversion and Neuroticism with the positive mental health of Canadians (emotional, social and psychological). Extroversion was positively associated with mental health and Neuroticism negatively associated with mental health. The primary purpose of the present study was to replicate their study with a very similar population from the same country and using the same measures, only with data gathered a year later in the second summer of the pandemic in 2021.
Present Study
The main objective of the present study is to replicate previous work by Shokrkon and Nicoladis (2021), using the same measures and with a very similar population. In their study, they tested how Neuroticism and Extroversion impacted the mental health of Canadians during the COVID-19 pandemic using the data gathered in the summer of 2020. We gathered our data, a year later in the summer of 2021 using the same demographic questions, mental health, and personality measures. We expected to replicate their results and find that Extroversion is positively and Neuroticism is negatively associated with the mental health of Canadians
Moreover, we aimed to extend their study by investigating the impacts of all big 5 personality traits (instead of only Extroversion and Neuroticism) on the mental health of Canadians during the pandemic. Furthermore, among the psychological variables that contribute to the relationship between stressors and mental health outcomes during pandemics, coping and response to stress are likely to play an important role (Serafini et al., 2020), therefore we also gathered data on Coping and Response to COVID-19 stress to control for the effects of these variables on the relationship between personality traits and mental health.