The Influence of the Big Five Personality Factors on Mental Health Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Prospective Study

The Big Five personality factors (PF) are considered to be predictive of mental health problems, but it is unclear if these factors equally contributed to mental health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to before the pandemic. This prospective study aimed to fill this knowledge gap. For this purpose data was extracted from the population-based LISS-panel. We included adult respondents (Nmales = 1,838, Nfemales = 1892) who participated in three surveys before the pandemic (T1March-2019, T2May-2019, T3November-2019) and in three surveys during the pandemic in 2020 (T4March-2020, T5May-2020, T6november-2020). Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to examine and compare the longitudinal associations between PF at T2May-2019 and moderate-severe anxiety and depressions symptoms (ADS) at T3November-2019, and longitudinal associations between PF at T5May-2020 and ADS at T5November-2020 among males and females. Control variables (pre-existing ADS, lack support, demographics) were retrieved from the T1March-2019 and T4March-2020 surveys, respectively. For the present study we distinguished five levels (very high to very low) of each PF. For both sexes, those with (very) low emotional stability and/or conscientiousness had considerably higher rates of ADS compared to those with very high levels of the same trait. These findings were similar both before and during the pandemic. Moreover, we found no indications that those with a certain level of a PF during the pandemic were more of less at risk for ADS or persistent ADS, than those with the same level of the same PF before the pandemic. Thus, we found no indications that the pandemic affected the impact of personality factors on moderate-severe anxiety and depressions symptoms.