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Psychological distress and Neuroticism: A two‐wave panel study
Author(s) -
Cramer Duncan
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
british journal of medical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.102
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 2044-8341
pISSN - 0007-1129
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8341.1994.tb01801.x
Subject(s) - neuroticism , psychology , psychological distress , distress , clinical psychology , personality , psychiatry , social psychology , anxiety
The temporal relationship between psychological distress and Neuroticism, both measured at two points eight months apart, was examined in a representative sample of 225 adult residents in Canberra, using cross‐lagged panel correlation and latent variable LISREL analysis. Psychological distress was assessed by the 30‐item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ‐30). Because the synchronous and autocorrelations differed significantly, the interpretation of the significant difference between the cross‐lagged correlations was problematic. The cross‐lagged path coefficients in the LISREL models were not significantly positive, suggesting that the temporal relationship between these two variables was spurious and due to error variance. The test‐retest correlation was significantly higher for Neuroticism than for the GHQ‐30, implying that Neuroticism is more a measure of a relatively stable personality characteristic and the GHQ‐30 more one of transient psychological distress.