(PS9-99) The Relationship Between Neuroticism and Chronic Conditions: Extraversion as a Moderator

Background: Extensive evidence implicates neuroticism as a risk factor for several chronic health conditions, such as cardiovascular disease (Weston et al., 2015), hypertension (Weston et al., 2020), diabetes (Turiano et al., 2022), and stroke (Stephan et al., 2023). In contrast, extraversion is associated with positive emotionality and social connections which could potentially offset the negative effects of neuroticism. Indeed, there is some research showing that neuroticism and extraversion interact to predict well-being (e.g., Lynn & Steel, 2006). Given the protective effects of social connection and positive emotionality, it is likely that extraversion might weaken some of the detrimental impact of neuroticism on the development and course of chronic health conditions. In the present study, we predicted that higher extraversion would attenuate the relationship between neuroticism and chronic health conditions.

Methods: National data from 2,845 participants (55.5% female, M_age = 64) from the third wave of the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) survey conducted between 2013 and 2014 were used for the current analysis. Using the Self-Administered Questionnaire data, neuroticism personality trait (M = 2.06, SD = 0.62), extraversion personality trait (M = 3.09, SD = 0.58), and the number of chronic conditions in the past 12 months (M = 3.26, SD = 3.15) were measured using 4-item, 5-item and 39-item scales, respectively. Depressed affect (M = 0.46, SD = 1.56) was assessed by 7 items during a telephone interview.
Results & Conclusions: Hierarchical regression was used to examine the moderating effects of extraversion on the relationship between neuroticism and chronic conditions, with age, sex, and depression symptoms as covariates. There was a significant neuroticism*extraversion interaction for chronic diseases, such that the positive relation between neuroticism and chronic diseases was weaker among individuals with high extraversion scores than among those with low extraversion scores (F (1, 283) = 5.70, p = .017). This finding suggests that extraversion may help buffer the undesirable effects of neuroticism on chronic health conditions.