Taina Hintsa

Maturity and change in personality: Developmental trends of temperament and character in adulthood

We studied the developmental trends of temperament and character in a longitudinal population-based sample of Finnish men and women aged 20-45 years using the Temperament and Character Inventory model of personality. Personality was assessed in 1997, 2001, and 2007 (n = 2,104, 2,095, and 2,056, respectively). Mean-level changes demonstrated qualitatively distinct developmental patterns for character (self-directedness, cooperativeness, and self-transcendence) and temperament (novelty seeking, harm avoidance, reward dependence, and persistence). Character developed toward greater maturity, although self-transcendence decreased with age. However, self-transcendence was the strongest predictor of overall personality change. Cohort effects indicated lower level of self-transcendence and higher level of self-directedness and cooperativeness in younger birth cohorts. Regarding temperament, novelty seeking decreased and persistence increased slightly with age. Both high novelty seeking and high persistence predicted overall personality change. These findings suggest that temperament and character traits follow different kinds of developmental trajectories.

Cumulative Effect of Psychosocial Factors in Youth on Ideal Cardiovascular Health in Adulthood The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study

Background— The American Heart Association has defined a new metric of ideal cardiovascular health as part of its 2020 Impact Goals. We examined whether psychosocial factors in youth predict ideal cardiovascular health in adulthood. Methods and Results— Participants were 477 men and 612 women from the nationwide Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study. Psychosocial factors were measured from cohorts 3 to 18 years of age at the baseline of the study, and ideal cardiovascular health was examined 27 years later in adulthood. The summary measure of psychosocial factors in youth comprised socioeconomic factors, emotional factors, parental health behaviors, stressful events, self-regulation of the child, and social adjustment of the child. There was a positive association between a higher number of favorable psychosocial factors in youth and greater ideal cardiovascular health index in adulthood (&bgr;=0.16; P<0.001) that persisted after adjustment for age, sex, medication use, and cardiovascular risk factors in childhood (&bgr;=0.15; P<0.001). The association was monotonic, suggesting that each increment in favorable psychosocial factors was associated with improvement in cardiovascular health. Of the specific psychosocial factors, a favorable socioeconomic environment (&bgr;=0.12; P<0.001) and participants’ self-regulatory behavior (&bgr;=0.07; P=0.004) were the strongest predictors of ideal cardiovascular health in adulthood. Conclusions— The findings suggest a dose-response association between favorable psychosocial factors in youth and cardiovascular health in adulthood, as defined by the American Heart Association metrics. The effect seems to persist throughout the range of cardiovascular health, potentially shifting the population distribution of cardiovascular health rather than simply having effects in a high-risk population.

Personality and risk of diabetes in adults: Pooled analysis of 5 cohort studies

OBJECTIVE Diabetes is an increasingly important public health concern, but little is known about the contribution of psychological factors on diabetes risk. We examined whether personality is associated with risk of incident diabetes and diabetes-related mortality. METHOD An individual-participant meta-analysis of 34,913 adults free of diabetes at baseline (average age 53.7 years, 57% women) from 5 prospective cohort studies from the United States and United Kingdom. Personality dimensions included extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience based on the Five Factor Model. RESULTS During an average follow-up of 5.7 years, 1845 participants became diabetic. Of the 5 personality dimensions, only low conscientiousness was associated with an elevated diabetes risk (OR = 0.87, 95% CI = 0.82-0.91 per 1 standard deviation increment in conscientiousness). This association attenuated by 60% after adjustment for obesity and by 25% after adjustment for physical inactivity. Low conscientiousness was also associated with elevated risk of diabetes mortality (HR = 0.72, CI = 0.53-0.98 per 1 standard deviation increment in conscientiousness). Other personality traits were not consistently associated with diabetes incidence or mortality. CONCLUSIONS Low conscientiousness-a cognitive-behavioral disposition reflecting careless behavior and a lack of self-control and planning-is associated with elevated risk of diabetes and diabetes-related mortality. The underlying mechanisms are likely to involve health behaviors, such as poor weight management, physical inactivity, and adherence to medical management recommendations.

Adult temperament and childbearing over the life course

Emerging evidence suggests that temperament may predict childbearing. We examined the association between four temperament traits (novelty seeking, harm avoidance, reward dependence and persistence of the Temperament and Character Inventory) and childbearing over the life course in the population‐based Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns study (n = 1535; 985 women, 550 men). Temperament was assessed when the participants were aged 20–35 and fertility history from adolescence to adulthood was reported by the participants at age 30–45. Discrete‐time survival analysis modelling indicated that high childbearing probability was predicted by low novelty seeking (standardized OR = 0.92; 95% confidence interval 0.88–0.97), low harm avoidance (OR = 0.90; 0.85–0.95), high reward dependence (OR = 1.09; 1.03–1.15) and low persistence (OR = 0.91; 0.87–0.96) with no sex differences or quadratic effects. These associations grew stronger with increase in numbers of children. The findings were substantially the same in a completely prospective analysis. Adjusting for education did not influence the associations. Despite its negative association with overall childbearing, high novelty seeking increased the probability of having children in participants who were not living with a partner (OR = 1.29; 1.12–1.49). These data provide novel evidence for the role of temperament in influencing childbearing, and suggest possible weak natural selection of temperament traits in contemporary humans. Copyright

Five-factor personality traits and sleep: Evidence from two population-based cohort studies

OBJECTIVE The current study examines associations between five factor personality traits and average sleep duration, sleep deficiency, and sleep problems. METHOD The participants were from two population-based samples from Australia (n = 1,104, age range 31-41) and Finland (n = 1,623, age range 30-45). Self-reports of sleep behavior, sleep problems (Jenkins scale), and five factor model personality traits (NEO-FFI) were collected. Associations between personality traits and sleep were analyzed with linear regressions. RESULTS The results showed that higher extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness were, in general, associated with better sleep, whereas higher neuroticism was associated with sleeping less well. Openness was not associated with sleep. Most of the associations were replicable between the samples from the two countries, but personality traits explained only small part of the variance in sleep behavior. CONCLUSIONS Increasing the knowledge on personality and sleep may benefit more personalized treatment of sleep disorders and help in personnel selection to jobs in which it is critical to stay alert. However, longitudinal research is needed to confirm the current findings.

Associations between five-factor model traits and perceived job strain: a population-based study.

This study examined the association between Five-Factor Model personality traits and perceived job strain. The sample consisted of 758 women and 614 men (aged 30-45 years in 2007) participating in the Young Finns study. Personality was assessed with the Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) questionnaire and work stress according to Karaseks demand-control model of job strain. The associations between personality traits and job strain and its components were measured by linear regression analyses where the traits were first entered individually and then simultaneously. The results for the associations between individually entered personality traits showed that high neuroticism, low extraversion, low openness, low conscientiousness, and low agreeableness were associated with high job strain. High neuroticism, high openness, and low agreeableness were related to high demands, whereas high neuroticism, low extraversion, low openness, low conscientiousness, and low agreeableness were associated with low control. In the analyses for the simultaneously entered traits, high neuroticism, low openness, and low conscientiousness were associated with high job strain. In addition, high neuroticism was related to high demands and low control, whereas low extraversion was related to low demands and low control. Low openness and low conscientiousness were also related to low control. This study suggests that personality is related to perceived job strain. Perceptions of work stressors and decision latitude are not only indicators of structural aspects of work but also indicate that there are individual differences in how individuals experience their work environment.

Developing a short measure of organizational justice: a multisample health professionals study

Objectives: To develop and test the validity of a short version of the original questionnaire measuring organizational justice. Methods: The study samples comprised working physicians (N = 2792) and registered nurses (n = 2137) from the Finnish Health Professionals study. Structural equation modelling was applied to test structural validity, using the justice scales. Furthermore, criterion validity was explored with well-being (sleeping problems) and health indicators (psychological distress/self-rated health). Results: The short version of the organizational justice questionnaire (eight items) provides satisfactory psychometric properties (internal consistency, a good model fit of the data). All scales were associated with an increased risk of sleeping problems and psychological distress, indicating satisfactory criterion validity. Conclusion: This short version of the organizational justice questionnaire provides a useful tool for epidemiological studies focused on health-adverse effects of work environment.

Is personality associated with cancer incidence and mortality? An individual-participant meta-analysis of 2156 incident cancer cases among 42,843 men and women.

Background:The putative role of personality in cancer risk has been controversial, and the evidence remains inconclusive.Methods:We pooled data from six prospective cohort studies (British Household Panel Survey; Health and Retirement Study; Household, Income, and Labour Dynamics in Australia; Midlife in the United Survey; Wisconsin Longitudinal Study Graduate; and Sibling samples) for an individual-participant meta-analysis to examine whether personality traits of the Five Factor Model (extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience) were associated with the incidence of cancer and cancer mortality in 42 843 cancer-free men and women at baseline (mean age 52.2 years, 55.6% women).Results:During an average follow-up of 5.4 years, there were 2156 incident cancer cases. In random-effects meta-analysis adjusted for age, sex, and race/ethnicity, none of the personality traits were associated with the incidence of all cancers or any of the six site-specific cancers included in the analysis (lung, colon, breast, prostate, skin, and leukaemia/lymphoma). In the three cohorts with cause-specific mortality data (421 cancer deaths among 21 835 participants), none of the personality traits were associated with cancer mortality.Conclusions:These data suggest that personality is not associated with increased risk of incident cancer or cancer-related mortality.

Negative emotionality, activity, and sociability temperaments predicting long-term job strain and effort–reward imbalance: A 15-year prospective follow-up study

OBJECTIVE This study examined a longitudinal association between innate temperament and perceptions of long-term work stressors. METHODS The sample consisted of 276 men and 345 women (aged 30-45 years in 2007) participating in the prospective population-based Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns study. In 1992, temperament was self-assessed with the EAS questionnaire that assesses three temperamental traits: negative emotionality, activity, and sociability. Perceived work stressors were measured in 2001 and in 2007 using two models: Karaseks demand/control-model in which a combination of high demands and low control results in job strain, and Siegrists Effort-reward imbalance (ERI) model. RESULTS The results showed that higher negative emotionality and lower sociability systematically predicted higher perceived job strain and ERI (P<.001). Activity predicted higher perceived ERI (P<.05). Activity did not predict perceived job strain, as it was related to both higher perceived demands and higher control. CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that temperament may be a predisposing factor to the experiences of work stressors in adulthood. Although self-reported job strain and ERI are measures of job characteristics, they are affected by individual temperament.

Do pre-employment influences explain the association between psychosocial factors at work and coronary heart disease? The Whitehall II study.

Objectives To examine whether the association between psychosocial factors at work and incident coronary heart disease (CHD) is explained by pre-employment factors, such as family history of CHD, education, paternal education and social class, number of siblings and height. Methods A prospective cohort study of 6435 British men aged 35–55 years at phase 1 (1985–1988) and free from prevalent CHD at phase 2 (1989–1990) was conducted. Psychosocial factors at work were assessed at phases 1 and 2 and mean scores across the two phases were used to determine long-term exposure. Selected pre-employment factors were assessed at phase 1. Follow-up for coronary death, first non-fatal myocardial infarction or definite angina between phase 2 and 1999 was based on clinical records (250 events, follow-up 8.7 years). Results The selected pre-employment factors were associated with risk for CHD: HRs (95% CI) were 1.33 (1.03 to 1.73) for family history of CHD, 1.18 (1.05 to 1.32) for each quartile decrease in height and 1.16 (0.99 to 1.35) for each category increase in number of siblings. Psychosocial work factors also predicted CHD: 1.72 (1.08 to 2.74) for low job control and 1.72 (1.10 to 2.67) for low organisational justice. Adjustment for pre-employment factors changed these associations by 4.1% or less. Conclusions In this occupational cohort of British men, the association between psychosocial factors at work and CHD was largely independent of family history of CHD, education, paternal educational attainment and social class, number of siblings and height.