Personality traits and psychological well-being as moderators of the relationship between stressors and negative affect: A daily diary study

Individuals high in neuroticism tend to experience greater negative affect when confronted with stressors. In the present study, four other personality traits (i.e., openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and extraversion) were included to examine their unique contribution to affective reactivity to stress. In addition, three domains of psychological well-being (positive relations with others, environmental mastery, and autonomy) were included to examine whether they mediate the associations between the traits and affective reactivity. Data from a daily diary study were used, collected over 8 days (N = 782). The results of Bayesian multilevel modeling showed that, of the Big Five traits, only neuroticism moderated the relationship between stressful events and experienced negative affect. In other words, among the traits, neuroticism was the only robust predictor of affective reactivity. However, when the three well-being variables were added, neuroticism was no longer a significant predictor. Environmental mastery weakened the association between stressors and negative affect, whereas autonomy reinforced this association. The results of a Bayesian multilevel moderation analysis confirmed that mastery and autonomy fully mediated the relationship between neuroticism and stressor-induced negative affect. An important implication of the study is that the negative influence of neuroticism on affective reactivity can be reduced by developing mastery and competence skills.