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Relationships of Personality Traits and Stress to Gingival Status or Soft‐tissue Oral Pathology: an Exploratory Study
Author(s) -
Minneman Margaret A.,
Cobb Charles,
Soriano Fernando,
Burns Sherry,
Schuchman Lynn
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
journal of public health dentistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.64
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1752-7325
pISSN - 0022-4006
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-7325.1995.tb02326.x
Subject(s) - psychoticism , neuroticism , extraversion and introversion , personality , big five personality traits , eysenck personality questionnaire , clinical psychology , soft tissue , anxiety , psychology , personality pathology , medicine , pathology , psychiatry , personality disorders , social psychology
Objectives : The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships of personality traits and stress with gingival inflammation and with soft‐tissue oral pathology. Methods : Personality traits of psychoticism (P), extroversion and introversion (E), and neuroticism (N) were measured with Eysenck's personality questionnaire (EPO). Stress was measured with a modified organizational and individual assessment survey (OIAS) developed by Hendrix. Military recruits from Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri, were examined for soft‐tissue oral pathology and gingival status at weeks one (n= 241) and six (n= 61) of basic combat training (BCT). The EPQ and OIAS were administered to 217 recruits during week six of BCT. A discriminant analysis was used to determine correlations among study variables. Results : Significant correlations (P <.05) were found between personality traits and various measures of tolerance of stress. Little variance was found between groups originally presenting with or without disease. Only physical stress (P <.005) was shown to affect soft‐tissue pathology, while gingival inflammation correlated significantly to E scores (P <.02), tolerance to change (P <.02), and anxiety (P <.05). Conclusions : Data support a possible relationship among certain personality traits, stress variables, and gingival inflammation or soft‐tissue pathology in recruits with extreme personality characteristics or perception of high physical stress levels in basic combat training .