1. Personality and Health: No Evidence of Social or Behavioral Mediators? Kelly Cotter 1, Barbara Kerschner 2, Justin Martin 2, Leigh Powell 2, Daniel Rodda 2, Kellie Sturgeon 2 1 California State University, Stanislaus; 2 California State University, Sacramento SPSP 2015 Long Beach, CA Personality and Health: No Evidence of Social or Behavioral Mediators? Kelly Cotter 1, Barbara Kerschner 2, Justin Martin 2, Leigh Powell 2, Daniel Rodda 2, Kellie Sturgeon 2 1 California State University, Stanislaus; 2 California State University, Sacramento SPSP 2015 Long Beach, CA Introduction Results Acknowledgements This research was supported by the 2011-2012 Sacramento State University Enterprises, Inc. Faculty Grant for Professional Development. We would like to thank our participants and the members of the Active Aging Lab. Please contact Dr. Kelly Cotter for more information: kcotter@csustan.edu.kcotter@csustan.eduAcknowledgements This research was supported by the 2011-2012 Sacramento State University Enterprises, Inc. Faculty Grant for Professional Development. We would like to thank our participants and the members of the Active Aging Lab. Please contact Dr. Kelly Cotter for more information: kcotter@csustan.edu.kcotter@csustan.edu Method  Surveys were administered to 192 undergraduate students at California State University, Sacramento (aged 17 – 56 years, M = 19, SD = 4.7; 84.7% women; 32.2% Asian American, 28.2% Latino, 26% White; 52.3% in a committed relationship) Step 1Step 2Step 3 Predictor VariableBSE BBetaBSE BBetaBSE BBeta Neuroticism-.41.12-.28-.40.12-.27-.37.11-.25 Extraversion.24.17.12.16.08.12.15.06 Openness.20.13.12.14.12.09.22.12.13 Agreeableness-.17.16-.09-.13.15-.07-.16.15-.08 Conscientiousness.22.14.13.20.13.11.20.13.11 Vigorous Physical Activity.00.20.00.18 Positive Social Control.18.09.20.19.09.21 Negative Social Control -.40.12-.33-.40.12-.33 Neuroticism x Vigorous Physical Activity Interaction -.00.00-.25 ΔR 2 =.15, F(5, 156) = 5.41, p <.001 ΔR 2 =.11, F(3, 153) = 7.65, p <.001 ΔR 2 =.06, F(1, 152) = 13.63, p <.001 Note: p <.05, p <.01. Final Model: Total R 2 =.32 (Adj. R 2 =.28), F(9, 152) = 7.94, p <.001  Consistent with past research (Magee et al., 2013; Rhodes & Smith, 2006), our bivariate correlation analyses revealed that better self-rated health was associated with higher extraversion, higher conscientiousness, lower neuroticism, greater negative social control, and more frequent vigorous physical activity (see Table 1)  Partially consistent with our predictions, hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that better self-rated health was only uniquely associated with lower neuroticism, less negative social control, and more frequent vigorous physical activity when accounting for other personality traits (see Table 2) o This finding suggests that neuroticism may have a larger impact on self-rated health than the other personality characteristics  Contrary to our predictions, there was no evidence for mediation: o The association between neuroticism and self-rated health was not reduced by the addition of potential mediator variables to the regression analyses (see Table 3) o Neuroticism was not significantly associated with any of the potential mediator variables in bivariate analyses or when controlling for other personality traits (see Table 2) o These results suggest that neuroticism has a direct relationship with self-rated health, possibly caused by cognitive biases (e.g., a more pessimistic and worried approach to conceptualizing current health), or possibly caused by objective differences in health (e.g., because individuals higher in neuroticism are more frequently ill; Williams, O’Brien, & Colder, 2004)  The relationship of neuroticism to health was significantly moderated by vigorous physical activity (see Table 2) o Participants higher in neuroticism had worse self-rated health, regardless of physical activity participation, but participants lower in neuroticism had better self-rated health when they engaged in more frequent vigorous physical activity (see Figure 1) o Our results demonstrate that individuals high in neuroticism report worse current health status, regardless of whether they engage in physical activity, suggesting that the link between higher neuroticism and worse self-rated health may be caused by cognitive biases instead of objective health differences Limitations and Future Directions  The present sample was limited to college students, most of whom were women o The relationships between personality, health-related social control, physical activity, and health should be re-examined in a more diverse sample of adults  The current measure of health relied on self-report methodology o Future research should corroborate the present results using more concrete and objective health indicators (e.g., physical limitation, cholesterol levels, neuroimaging)  The present measure of physical activity relied on general evaluations and retrospective memory o Future research should confirm the current results using more concrete and objective gauges (e.g., physical activity logs, pedometers) 123456789101112 1Age-.02.13-.31.09.10.20.08-.08 -.13.03 2Gender --.01-.13-.01.26-.12-.19.16-.21-.07.20 3Income --.10-.06-.01.15-.08-.05-.01-.07.03 4Neuroticism --.30-.00-.35-.24.02-.01.10-.29 5Extraversion -.15.21.19.18.01-.04.21 6Openness --.01-.13.07-.10-.13.11 7Agreeableness -.06-.14-.01-.07.03 8Conscientiousness -.04.20.07.22 9Vigorous Physical Activity -.06-.11.27 10Positive Social Control -.72-.04 11Negative Social Control --.27 12Current Self-Rated Health - Note: p <.05, p <.01. Gender was dichotomized such that 0 = women and 1 = men and annual household income was dichotomized such that 0 = $20,000 or less and 1 = $20,001 or more DV = Vigorous Physical ActivityDV = Positive Social ControlDV = Negative Social Control Predictor VariableBSE BBetaBSE BBetaBSE BBeta Neuroticism6.1920.11.03.05.15.03.09.12.07 Extraversion72.2427.25.22-.02.20-.01.16-.01 Openness9.9521.40.04-.14.16-.07-.19.13-.12 Agreeableness-55.0725.31-.18-.03.19-.01-.09.15-.05 Conscientiousness4.9422.28.02.41.16.21.13.08 R 2 =.07 (Adj. =.04), F(5, 157) = 2.36, p =.04 R 2 =.05 (Adj. =.02), F(5, 170) = 1.68, p =.14 R 2 =.03 (Adj. =.00), F(5, 170) =.99, p =.43 Note: p <.05, p <.01. Table 3: Table 3: Regression Analyses Predicting Potential Mediator Variables Table 1: Table 1: Correlations Between All Variables Table 2: Table 2: Regression Analysis Predicting Current Self-Rated Health Figure 1 Discussion AlphaMeanSDRange NEO Personality Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1992) Neuroticism.812.94.601.17 - 4.92 Extraversion.653.42.422.17 - 4.58 Openness.743.24.511.82 - 4.58 Agreeableness.713.68.452.17 - 5.00 Conscientiousness.833.81.522.42 - 5.00 Social Control over Physical Activity (Cotter, 2012) Positive.95.991.040 - 4.38 Negative.83.57.830 - 3.57 Vigorous Physical Activity (Cotter & Lachman, 2010) Minutes per week spent engaging in vigorous activity in the home, for work, or during leisure time (setting with highest reported minutes) 128.48 145.98 0 -720 Perceived Health Excellent (5), Very Good (4) Good (3), Fair (2), Poor (1) 2.77.91 1 - 5 Personality  The Big Five personality traits of neuroticism (e.g., anxious, self-pitying), extraversion (e.g., active, outgoing), openness (e.g., curious, imaginative), agreeableness (e.g., appreciative, sympathetic), and conscientiousness (e.g., efficient, organized; Costa & McCrae, 1992)  Personality and health o Higher conscientiousness, higher extraversion, and low neuroticism are associated with better self-reported physical health (Magee, Heave, & Miller, 2013) Health-related Social Control  An effort to change the health behavior of a social partner (Dennis, 2011) o Positive social control: reinforcement, offering to engage in behavior with partner, modeling behavior, providing helpful information on behavior o Negative social control: ridicule, negative comparisons, nagging, disapproval of behavior  Social control and health o Social control has mixed associations with health; Both positive and negative social control can serve to reduce or increase healthful behavior (Logic, Okun, & Pugliesse, 2009)  Social control and personality o Perceived social support is similar to positive social control (Lewis & Rook, 1999) o Higher social support is related to higher extraversion, lower neuroticism, and lower openness (Swickert, Hittner, & Foster, 2010), but no previous research has examined the relationships between personality and health-related social control Vigorous Physical Activity  Rapid heartbeat that is felt in the chest and is performed long enough to cause sweat and heavy breathing (Cotter & Lachman, 2010)  Vigorous physical activity and health o At recommended levels, vigorous activity improves physical health (Warburton & Nicol, 2006) and is associated with positive mental health (VanKim & Nelson, 2013)  Vigorous physical activity and personality o Higher openness, higher extraversion, and lower agreeableness are associated with more frequent physical activity (Stephan, Boiché, Canada, & Terracciano, 2013)  Vigorous physical activity and social control o More frequent physical activity is associated with more positive social control for younger men and both more positive and more negative social control for older men, but physical activity and social control are uncorrelated among women (Cotter, 2012) The Present Study  The present study examines social control and physical activity as potential mediators of the relationship between personality and health, as well as the potential role of physical activity as a moderator of the relationship between personality and perceived health