Dispositional self-control is negatively related to perceived stress above and beyond Big-Five personality traits in adolescents
Wygłosił: Stanisław Czerwiński
Na: 25th International Student Scienitific Conference
Introduction: Dispositional self-control is defined as the capacity for altering one’s own responses, especially to bring them into line with standards such as ideals, values, morals, and social expectations, and to support the pursuit of long-term goals (Baumeister, Vohs, & Tice, 2007).In recent years, it is obtaining increasing interest in clinical and personality psychology research. The construct has been found to play a crucial role in predicting life achievement, life satisfaction and stress. Stress is known to affect health and quality of life greatly. Karim & Chaudhri (2012) postulated that some people are getting more susceptible to losing control as a result of rapid advances in technology, overstimulation and the subsequent diminishing effort towards emotional growth and awareness. With increasing numbers of stimuli in the modern word individuals’ self-control may be imperative. Adolescents have been found to have lower levels of self-control in an emotional context than other age groups, making the trait all the more important at this stage of life.
Aim of the study: The aim of the study was to examine whether dispositional self-control is significantly related to perceived stress in an adolescent sample, when controlling for other personality variables.
Methods: The study was conducted on 483 adolescents (307 (63.6%) female and 173 male (35.8%), 3 persons (.6%) did not report gender) from three different high schools in Gdańsk. Mean age was M = 16.91 (SD = .74). The participants completed Brief Self-Control Scale alongside Perceived Stress Scale and Mini-IPIP scale for measuring Big Five personality traits. The instruments used were valid and reliable. Demographic data was also collected.
Results: The results of the study showed that dispositional self-control is negatively correlated with perceived stress. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that when controlling for Big Five personality traits the relationship between self-control and stress was still significant (β = -.10). Other variables significantly related to stress were neuroticism (β = .48) and gender (females scoring higher) (β = -.61).
Conclusions: These results underline the importance of self-control in individuals’ health and well-being, as reduced stress can have great influence on all aspects of ones’ quality of life. More research on the relationships between trait selfcontrol and different aspects of quality of life could significantly expand the understanding of the construct.