Big Five Personality Factors in Relation to Coping with Contact Restrictions during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Small Sample Study

To slow down the spread of the SARS-Cov-2 virus, countries worldwide severely restricted public and social life. In addition to the physical threat posed by the viral disease (COVID-19), the pandemic also has implications for psychological well-being. Using a small sample (N = 51), we examined how Big Five personality traits relate to coping with contact restrictions during three consecutive weeks in the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. We showed that extraversion was associated with suffering from severe contact restrictions and with benefiting from their relaxation. Individuals with high neuroticism did not show a change in their relatively poor coping with the restrictions over time, whereas conscientious individuals seemed to experience no discomfort and even positive feelings during the period of contact restrictions. Our results support the assumption that neuroticism is a vulnerability factor in relation to psychological wellbeing but also show an influence of contact restrictions on extraverted individuals.

为减缓 SARS-CoV-2 病毒的传播，全球各国对公共生活和社会活动实施了严格的限制。除了病毒性疾病（COVID-19）带来的物理威胁外，这场大流行还对心理健康产生了深远影响。通过小样本（N = 51）的研究，我们探讨了五大人格特质如何与在 COVID-19 大流行第一波德国连续三周的接触限制应对能力相关。我们发现，外向性与遭受严重接触限制以及从中受益有关。高神经质个体在相对较差的应对限制能力上并未随时间发生变化，而自律性个体在接触限制期间似乎并未感到不适，甚至体验到了积极的情感。我们的研究结果支持了神经质是心理健康脆弱因素的假设，同时也表明接触限制对外向性个体产生了影响。