Personality and Self-Perception of Physical and Emotional Health among First-Year University Students

The aim of this study was to determine the four personalitytraits: psychoticism (P), extraversion (E), neuroticism (N) and lietendencies (L) measured by the Eysenck PersonalityQuestionnaire, depression symptoms measured by the ZungDepression Scale (ZDS) and self-perceived health-related well--being measured by SF-36 in a sample of 430 healthy first-yearuniversity students of both sexes. We also wanted to determinewhich personality variable best predicts depression symptoms(ZDS) and well-being (SF-36). The obtained results showed thatstudents rated their health and health-related quality of life asgood, although they scored lower than same aged adults fromthe general population. Women had significantly higher scoreson ZDS, N and L than men, while men scored higher on P andsix out of eight SF-36 scales. N, among all of the otherincluded personality variables, best predicts depressionsymptoms on ZDS and self-perceived physical and emotionalhealth on SF-36. We also found that gender was not amoderator in any of the personality traits in their influence onwell-being, but that N in females only adds significantly to theexpression of depression symptoms. We concluded thatpersonality plays an important role in subjective health-relatedwell-being together with objective life circumstances.Cilj ove studije bio je odrediti četiri osobine ličnosti:psihoticizam (P), ekstraverziju (E), neuroticizam (N) itendenciju laganju (L) primjenom Eysenckova upitnikaličnosti, depresivnih simptoma primjenom Zungove skaledepresije (ZDS) te samoprocjenu osjećaja dobrobitiprimjenom upitnika SF-36 na uzorku od 430 zdravihstudenata prve godine fakulteta obaju spolova. Željeli smoispitati i koja varijabla ličnosti najbolje predviđa simptomedepresije (ZDS) i osjećaj dobrobiti (SF-36). Rezultati supokazali kako su studenti procijenili svoje zdravlje i kvalitetuživota vezanu za zdravlje kao dobre, iako su njihovesamoprocjene lošije od skupine iste dobi iz opće populacije.Žene su postigle značajno više rezultate na ZDS, N i L negomuškarci, a muškarci na P i šest od osam skala SF-36. Međusvim uključenim varijablama ličnosti N najbolje predviđadepresivne simptome na ZDS kao i samoprocijenjeno fizičkoi emocionalno zdravlje na SF-36. Našli smo i kako spol nijemoderator crta ličnosti u njihovu utjecaju na osjećajdobrobiti, ali kako N samo u žena značajno utječe napovećanu ekspresiju depresivnih simptoma. Zaključili smo daličnost uz objektivne okolnosti ima važnu ulogu usubjektivnoj procjeni dobrobiti vezanoj uz zdravlje