"Let us create!": The mediating role of Creative Self-Efficacy between personality and Mental Well-Being in university students

The present study aimed to test a model of relationships between the Big-Five personality traits, Creative SelfEfficacy, and Mental Well-Being in a sample of Chinese undergraduate students (N = 248), controlling for gender and age. We found that Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and Agreeableness were positively associated with Mental Well-Being and Creative Self-Efficacy, and that Neuroticism was negatively associated with both Mental Well-Being and Creative Self-Efficacy, with the effects observed for Extraversion and Neuroticism being non-significant. Creative Self-Efficacy was positively and significantly associated with Mental Well-Being, fully mediated the effect of Openness and partially mediated the effect of Conscientiousness on Mental Well-Being. These results contribute to explain individual differences in personality and Mental WellBeing through the indirect effect of Creative Self-Efficacy, a belief in one's ability to innovatively overcome problems and achieve creative outcomes, supporting a theoretical model integrating Trait Theory and SocialCognitive Theory. Further implications for theory, research, assessment, and intervention are discussed.