scholarly journals Personality traits and BMI trends over three years in Japanese university students

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. e0248833
Author(s):  
Nozomi Fukuhara-Makiyama ◽  
Masaki Hayashida ◽  
Masakazu Kobayashi ◽  
Ikuko Sagara ◽  
Sayaka Ogawa ◽  
...  

In Europe and America, associations between personality traits and body-mass index (BMI) have been reported. However, in Japan, the association between personality traits and BMI (i.e., thinness and obesity) has not been well studied. In this study, we investigated the relationship between Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) personality traits and changes in BMI status among Japanese students during their university attendance. We measured the height and weight of 5,340 students in a Japanese university during annual medical checkups and calculated their BMI. The students’ personality traits were measured using the short Japanese version of the TCI at university admission. The participants were divided into seven groups based on how BMI changed from the first year to the fourth year at university. In men, compared to the group that maintained normal BMI status (N = 2,189) over time (i.e., the control group), the group that maintained thinness status (N = 226) were lower in Reward Dependence, and the group whose status improved from thinness to normal (N = 117) were higher in Harm Avoidance. In women, compared with the control group (N = 1,510), the group that maintained thinness status (N = 302) was lower in Novelty Seeking, and the group whose status worsened from normal to thinness (N = 127) was higher in Harm Avoidance. Weak associations were found between thinness and TCI personality traits among Japanese university students. Further elaboration of the relationship between obesity or thinness and personality traits may help to provide effective preventive interventions in these areas.

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
Enrica Marzola ◽  
Secondo Fassino ◽  
Federico Amianto ◽  
Giovanni Abbate-Daga

Objective. Temperament traits like high harm avoidance (HA) have been proposed as putative risk factors for the development of eating disorders (EDs). We aimed at studying the relationship between temperament and eating attitudes on a large community sample of adolescents. Method. We recruited 992 high school students aged 14–18. In addition to measuring body mass index (BMI), participants were asked to complete the temperament and character inventory and the food frequency questionnaire. Results. Sixty-two percent of the sample reported overeating, 22.8% reported normal eating, and 15.2% reported under eating. Under and normal eaters had higher BMI than that of over eaters. Harm avoidance was found to be significantly higher in those participants with lower eating intakes whilst novelty seeking was found to be higher in over eaters. Conclusion. An interesting association between temperament (high HA) and food approach (under eating) emerged. Longitudinal studies are needed to evaluate whether these traits represent a risk factor for the development of EDs.


2022 ◽  
Vol In Press (In Press) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryam Khoshkhui ◽  
Maedeh Kamrani ◽  
Maryam Emadzadeh ◽  
Zahra Jafari ◽  
Farhad Faridhosseini

Background: Considering the psychobiological aspects of various dermatological diseases and the role of personality traits in the development of chronic skin diseases, the present study aimed to assess the personality traits of patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria compared to healthy individuals. Methods: In this cross-sectional study conducted during 2016 - 2018, 100 patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria were selected using the convenience sampling method. Moreover, 100 healthy participants were selected as the control group. Research instruments were Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) and a demographic checklist. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, and chi-square test using SPSS Software version 23. Results: The patients had higher scores in novelty-seeking (P = 0.041) and harm avoidance (P = 0.015), while the healthy individuals had higher scores in self-directedness (P = 0.003) and cooperativeness (P = 0.001). Moreover, male patients had higher scores in novelty-seeking (P = 0.006) and rewarded dependence (P = 0.013); however, female patients had higher scores in self-transcendence (P = 0.001) and cooperativeness (P = 0.019). Furthermore, there was a correlation between the disease duration of with reward dependence, self-directedness, and self-transcendence. Conclusions: Personality traits seem to be associated with chronic spontaneous urticaria. In this regard, patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria had higher scores in novelty-seeking and harm avoidance and lower scores in self-directedness and cooperativeness than healthy individuals.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Josefsson ◽  
Päivi Merjonen ◽  
Markus Jokela ◽  
Laura Pulkki-Råback ◽  
Liisa Keltikangas-Järvinen

Little is known about the relationship between temperament and character inventory (TCI) profiles and depressive symptoms. Personality profiles are useful, because personality traits may have different effects on depressive symptoms when combined with different combinations of other traits. Participants were from the population-based Young Finns study with repeated measurements in 1997, 2001, and 2007 ( to 1902). TCI was administered in 1997 and mild depressive symptoms (modified Beck’s depression inventory, BDI) were reported in 1997, 2001, and 2007. BDI-II was also administered in 2007. We found that high harm avoidance and low self-directedness related strongly to depressive symptoms. In addition, sensitive (NHR) and fanatical people (ScT) were especially vulnerable to depressive symptoms. high novelty seeking and reward dependence increased depressive symptoms when harm avoidance was high. These associations were very similar in cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis. Personality profiles help in understanding the complex associations between depressive symptoms and personality.


2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
Annunziata Romeo ◽  
Agata Benfante ◽  
Giuliano Carlo Geminiani ◽  
Lorys Castelli

Background: Previous studies have shown that many personality traits are associated with fibromyalgia (FM), worsening both the quality of life and psychological distress of patients. Despite the high comorbidity of psychopathological disorders in this syndrome and their association with immature defense styles, few studies have examined the defense mechanisms used by FM patients. The main aim of our study was to investigate personality traits and defense mechanisms in FM patients compared to in a healthy control group (HC). Moreover, we investigated the effect of personality traits and defense mechanisms on psychological distress in both FM and HC groups. Methods: A total of 54 women with FM and 54 healthy women completed the (1) Temperament and Character Inventory—Revised; (2) the Toronto Alexithymia Scale; (3) the Defense Style Questionnaire; and (4) the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Results: The results indicated that FM patients display higher alexithymia, higher harm avoidance, lower self-directedness, lower persistence, and the higher use of a maladaptive defense style compared to HC. We found that alexithymia, harm avoidance, and maladaptive defense style are significant predictors of patients’ psychological distress. Moreover, harm avoidance and adaptive defense style significantly predicted psychological distress in the HC group. Conclusion: The present study is the first to explore the contribution of both defense mechanisms and personality characteristics on the psychological distress of FM patients. Our findings have important clinical implications and may help diagnose and treat FM patients more in depth.


PeerJ ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. e1651 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liliana Galindo ◽  
Francisco Pastoriza ◽  
Daniel Bergé ◽  
Anna Mané ◽  
Marisol Picado ◽  
...  

The heritability of schizophrenia and most personality traits has been well established, but the role of personality in susceptibility to schizophrenia remains uncertain. The aim of this study was to test for an association between personality traits and Neurological Soft Signs (NSS), a well-known biological marker of schizophrenia, in non-psychotic relatives of patients with schizophrenia. For this purpose, we evaluated the NSS scale and personality measured by the Temperament and Character inventory (TCI-R) in three groups of subjects: 29 patients with schizophrenia, 24 unaffected relatives and 37 controls. The results showed that patients with schizophrenia were more asocial (higher harm avoidance and lower reward dependence), more perseverative (higher persistence), and more schizotypal (lower self-directedness and cooperativeness, higher self-transcendence). The unaffected relatives showed higher harm avoidance, lower self-directedness and cooperativeness than the healthy controls. Higher NSS scores and sub-scores were found in patients and non-psychotic relatives compared with the controls. Among all the patients, total NSS scores were positively correlated with harm avoidance but negatively correlated with novelty seeking and persistence. Total NSS were also correlated with low scores on self-directedness and cooperativeness, which are indicators of personality disorder. Our results show that susceptibility to NSS and to schizophrenia are both related to individual differences in the temperament and character features in non-psychotic relatives of patients with schizophrenia. High harm avoidance, low persistence, low self-directedness and low cooperativeness contribute to both the risk of NSS and schizophrenia. These findings highlight the value of using both assessments to study high risk populations.


2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (13) ◽  
pp. 1200-1206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esra Yurumez ◽  
Esra Yazici ◽  
Yusuf Yasin Gumus ◽  
Ahmet Bulent Yazici ◽  
Salime Gursoy

Objective: This study investigates the relationship between ADHD and the personalities of parents of children with ADHD. Method: Personality traits of parents of children with ADHD (study group; n = 135) and parents of children without ADHD (control group; n = 122) were compared. Psychiatric comorbidities were excluded with Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders, Clinical Version [SCID-I-CV]. Personality is assessed with Temperament and Character Inventory, and inattention (IA) and hyperactivity (HI) are assessed with Turgay Scale. Results: Harm avoidance and persistence scores were higher, and self-directedness (SD) scores were lower in the study group than the control group. Being in ADHD group predicted lower SD scores. Positive correlations were found between harm avoidance and IA and HI, and between persistence and HI. Negative correlations were found between SD and both IA and HI. Conclusion: Our data suggest that there is relationship between ADHD in children’s and parents’ personalities. Common etiologic properties and personalized psychoeducation and treatment options for families should be discussed.


2013 ◽  
Vol 112 (3) ◽  
pp. 694-705 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Malesza ◽  
Paweł Ostaszewski

The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between Cloninger's personality dimensions of temperament (Harm Avoidance, Novelty Seeking, Reward Dependence, and Persistence) and the steepness of delay and effort discounting, which refers to a decrease in the subjective value of a reward as its delay, or effort required to obtain the reward, increases. Participants ( N = 112; ages 19 to 29 years, M = 21.80, SD = 1.35) filled out two inventories: the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) and the Discounting Questionnaire. The study revealed that the higher the Harm Avoidance and Reward Dependency, the steeper the effort discounting. On the other hand, the higher one's Persistence, the shallower one's effort discounting. Finally, a positive correlation was observed between delay and effort discounting. The results indicated that effort discounting was related to, but not equivalent to, delay discounting.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liliana Galindo ◽  
Francisco Pastoriza ◽  
Daniel Bergé ◽  
Anna Mané ◽  
Marisol Picado ◽  
...  

The heritability of schizophrenia and most personality traits has been well established, but the role of personality in susceptibility to schizophrenia remains uncertain. The aim of this study was to test for an association between personality traits and Neurological Soft Signs (NSS), a well-known biological marker of schizophrenia, in non-psychotic relatives of patients with schizophrenia. For this purpose, we evaluated the NSS scale and personality measured by the Temperament and Character inventory (TCI-R) in three groups of subjects: 29 patients with schizophrenia, 24 unaffected relatives and 37 controls. The results showed that patients with schizophrenia were more asocial (higher harm avoidance and lower reward dependence), more perseverative (higher persistence), and more schizotypal (lower self-directedness and cooperativeness, higher self-transcendence). The unaffected relatives showed higher harm avoidance, lower self-directedness and cooperativeness than the healthy controls. Higher NSS scores and sub-scores were found in patients and non-psychotic relatives compared with the controls. Among all the patients, total NSS scores were positively correlated with harm avoidance but negatively correlated with novelty seeking and persistence. Total NSS were also correlated with low scores on self-directedness and cooperativeness, which are indicators of personality disorder. Our results show that susceptibility to NSS and to schizophrenia are both related to individual differences in the temperament and character features in non-psychotic relatives of patients with schizophrenia. High harm avoidance, low persistence, low self-directedness and low cooperativeness contribute to both the risk of NSS and schizophrenia. These findings highlight the value of using both assessments to study high risk populations.


2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (S1) ◽  
pp. 1-1
Author(s):  
R. Martín-Santos ◽  
C. López-Solá ◽  
C. Binelli ◽  
E. Gelabert ◽  
R. Navinés ◽  
...  

The prevalence of social anxiety is estimated of 7-12% of the general population and 18% of university student. Social anxiety has a high prevalence of psychiatry and personality comorbidity. At age of 18-25 years old 80% of social anxiety cases have onset. To detect social anxiety at that age maybe important to avoid chronicity of the illness.Aims:To study personality traits associated with social anxiety in university students.Methods:We designed a cross-sectional study at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Student were recruited by an advertisement. All student signed the informed consent. We collected: Socio-demographic data, personal and family psychiatry history, and the Liebowitz Anxiety Scale (LSAS) and the Temperament and Character Inventory of Cloninger. We defined as a social anxiety group a LSAS ≥50 total score.Results:Five hundred ninety-one students enter in the study. Final sample after excluded those who did not filled the rating scales was 574 participants: 75% were women, mean age (SD): 22.7 (5.3), 156 (124 women/32 men), 26% had social anxiety. Eighteen percent had family and 22% personal psychiatry history. The personality profile of the social anxiety group was: high harm avoidance (HA) (p< .001), low novelty seeking (NS) (p< .001), and low self-directedness (SD) (p< .001).By logistic regression, after corrected by sex, age, personal and family psychiatry history, HA (OR=1.118; 95%CI=1.081-1.155), NS (OR=0.954;95%CI=0.927-0.982) and SD (OR=0.957;95%CI=0.930-0.985) predicted social anxiety. R2Nagelkerke=0.442. Hosmer-Lemeshow test (p>.05).Conclusions:A profile of high HA, low NS and SD personality dimensions may predict those university students with social anxiety.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liliana Galindo ◽  
Francisco Pastoriza ◽  
Daniel Bergé ◽  
Anna Mané ◽  
Marisol Picado ◽  
...  

The heritability of schizophrenia and most personality traits has been well established, but the role of personality in susceptibility to schizophrenia remains uncertain. The aim of this study was to test for an association between personality traits and Neurological Soft Signs (NSS), a well-known biological marker of schizophrenia, in non-psychotic relatives of patients with schizophrenia. For this purpose, we evaluated the NSS scale and personality measured by the Temperament and Character inventory (TCI-R) in three groups of subjects: 29 patients with schizophrenia, 24 unaffected relatives and 37 controls. The results showed that patients with schizophrenia were more asocial (higher harm avoidance and lower reward dependence), more perseverative (higher persistence), and more schizotypal (lower self-directedness and cooperativeness, higher self-transcendence). The unaffected relatives showed higher harm avoidance, lower self-directedness and cooperativeness than the healthy controls. Higher NSS scores and sub-scores were found in patients and non-psychotic relatives compared with the controls. Among all the patients, total NSS scores were positively correlated with harm avoidance but negatively correlated with novelty seeking and persistence. Total NSS were also correlated with low scores on self-directedness and cooperativeness, which are indicators of personality disorder. Our results show that susceptibility to NSS and to schizophrenia are both related to individual differences in the temperament and character features in non-psychotic relatives of patients with schizophrenia. High harm avoidance, low persistence, low self-directedness and low cooperativeness contribute to both the risk of NSS and schizophrenia. These findings highlight the value of using both assessments to study high risk populations.


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