Understanding the role of clinically diagnosed cancer in the associations between personality traits and life satisfaction
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Kang, Weixi
Whelan, Edward
Malvaso, Antonio
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Life satisfaction refers to the degree a person enjoys their life. An integrated account of life satisfaction is discussed in the literature, which proposes that life satisfaction is made up of personality traits and areas of life satisfaction (e.g., satisfaction with health, job, and social life). In addition, disruptions in one domain (e.g., health) may disrupt the association between personality traits and life satisfaction. The current research was interested in if clinically diagnosed cancer could influence the association between the Big Five personality traits and life satisfaction. The current study analyzed data from 1214 people with a diagnosis of cancer (38.55% males) with an average age of 59.70 (S.D. = 15.53) years and 13,319 people without a cancer diagnosis (38.13% males) with an average age of 59.97 (S.D. = 11.10) years who participated in Understanding Society: the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS). For the first time, our study revealed that cancer markedly influences the relationship between Agreeableness and life satisfaction, after accounting for demographic variables. Neuroticism was negatively associated with life satisfaction in people with and without clinically diagnosed cancer, whereas Agreeableness and Extraversion were positively associated with life satisfaction in people with and without clinically diagnosed cancer. Openness and Conscientiousness were positively related to life satisfaction in people without cancer but were not significant predictors in people with cancer. Health professionals should develop strategies and interventions by fostering personality traits, including Agreeableness, Openness, Conscientiousness, and Extraversion, while reducing Neuroticism.
Date Issued
2023-08-21
Date Acceptance
2023-08-16
Citation
Healthcare, 2023, 11 (16), pp.1-10
ISSN
2227-9032
Publisher
MDPI AG
Start Page
1
End Page
10
Journal / Book Title
Healthcare
Volume
11
Issue
16
Copyright Statement
© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
License URL
Identifier
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/11/16/2359
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
2359
Date Publish Online
2023-08-21