Neuroticism and Physical Health in Adolescents

Publication Date

2025

Presentation Length

15 minutes

College

College of Sciences & Mathematics

Department

Psychological Science, Department of

Student Level

Undergraduate

SPARK Category

Research

Faculty Advisor

Abigal Heller

SPARK Session

Developmental Psychopathology 1 or 2 (Heller)

Presentation Type

Talk/Oral

Summary

Neuroticism, defined as an individual’s lack of ability to regulate negative emotions (McRae et al., 2000), is categorized as one of the Big Five Personality Traits and has been studied for its significant influence as a predictor for physical health (Wilson & Dishman, 2015). Self-compassion is the ability to treat oneself with kindness, mindfulness, and acknowledge personal limitations without excessive self-criticism (Neff, 2003) and is a predictor for higher rates of physical activity, and thus, better physical health (Wong et al., 2021; Zang et al., 2023). Although neuroticism has been studied to measure physical health (Rhodes & Smith, 2006; Sutin et al., 2016), self-compassion has not been largely considered as a moderator to influence neuroticism’s relationship to physical health. This study examined self-compassion as a moderator of the relationship between neuroticism and physical health. In this study, late adolescent (ages 18-22; M = 21.1, SD = 0.97) college students (N = 95) filled out a survey on Qualtrics that measured demographics, neuroticism, self-compassion, and physical health. Results indicated that neuroticism predicted poorer physical health, b = -0.30, SE = 0.12, t(91) = -2.74, p = .008, 95% [-0.51, -0.08]. However, self-compassion did not moderate the relationship between neuroticism and physical health, b = 0.02, SE = 0.14, t(91) = 0.17, p = .866, 95% [-0.25, -0.29]. Results suggest that high neuroticism is associated with poorer physical health in late adolescent college students, though self-compassion was not shown to impact this relationship. Future studies would benefit from looking at other moderators for potential interventions for people with neuroticism, including self-compassion, in order to study the relationship between neuroticism and physical health.

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