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Published in: Journal of Happiness Studies 1/2022

15-04-2021 | Research Paper

Personality Traits and Time Perspectives: Implications for Adolescents’ Mental Health and Mental Illness

Authors: Loredana R. Diaconu-Gherasim, Cristina R. Mardari

Published in: Journal of Happiness Studies | Issue 1/2022

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Abstract

This study investigated how adolescents’ Big Five personality traits are related to mental health (i.e., happiness) and mental illness (i.e., depressive symptoms and anxiety) and whether their time perspectives may be potential mediators of these relations. The sample included 235 high school students (54.5% girls), aged between 15 and 18 (M = 16.87, SD = 0.68). The results indicated that adolescents with higher emotional stability also reported higher levels of happiness and lower levels of depressive symptoms and anxiety, whereas those with high levels of extraversion or conscientiousness experienced higher happiness. Further, adolescents with low levels of past negative or high levels of past positive time perspectives also reported high levels of happiness and low levels of mental illness. Furthermore, high levels of present fatalist and low levels of present hedonist time perspectives were associated with low levels of happiness. Our findings provided evidence for the mediating role of the past negative and past positive time perspectives for the relations of extraversion, emotional stability and agreeableness with both mental health and mental illness. Finally, the present hedonistic time perspective mediated the relations of extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness with happiness, whereas the present fatalist time perspective mediated the relation between emotional stability and happiness. Our study highlights the importance of time perspectives as mediational factors for the relations of the personality traits with adolescents’ mental health and mental illness.

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Metadata
Title
Personality Traits and Time Perspectives: Implications for Adolescents’ Mental Health and Mental Illness
Authors
Loredana R. Diaconu-Gherasim
Cristina R. Mardari
Publication date
15-04-2021
Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Published in
Journal of Happiness Studies / Issue 1/2022
Print ISSN: 1389-4978
Electronic ISSN: 1573-7780
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-021-00390-5

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