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©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Path analysis of relationship among personality, perceived stress, coping, social support, and psychological outcomes
Hamidreza Roohafza, Awat Feizi, Hamid Afshar, Mina Mazaheri, Omid Behnamfar, Ammar Hassanzadeh-Keshteli, Peyman Adibi
Hamidreza Roohafza, Cardiac Rehabilitation Research Center, Cardiovascular Research Institute, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan 009831, Iran
Awat Feizi, Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Health, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan 009831, Iran
Hamid Afshar, Mina Mazaheri, Psychosomatic Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan 009831, Iran
Omid Behnamfar, Isfahan Cardiovascular Research Center, Cardiovascular Research Institute, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan 009831, Iran
Ammar Hassanzadeh-Keshteli, Department of Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton T6K 2P6, Canada
Peyman Adibi, Integrative Functional Gastroenterology Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan 009831, Iran
Author contributions: Roohafza H, Afshar H, Hassanzadeh-Keshteli A and Adibi P contributed to study conception and design; Roohafza H and Feizi A contributed to data acquisition, analysis and interpretation; Mazaheri M and Behnamfar O drafted and wrote the manuscript; all authors contributed to editing and reviewing the final version of the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the institutional review board and ethics committee of the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences.
Informed consent statement: All study participants provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest to report.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Hamid Afshar, Associate Professor, Psychosomatic Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Shariati St., Isfahan 009831, Iran.
afshar@med.mui.ac.ir
Telephone: +98-31-36260709 Fax: +98-31-36289966
Received: January 14, 2016
Peer-review started: January 15, 2016
First decision: February 2, 2016
Revised: March 28, 2016
Accepted: April 21, 2016
Article in press: April 22, 2016
Published online: June 22, 2016
Processing time: 158 Days and 7.7 Hours
AIM: To provide a structural model of the relationship between personality traits, perceived stress, coping strategies, social support, and psychological outcomes in the general population.
METHODS: This is a cross sectional study in which the study group was selected using multistage cluster and convenience sampling among a population of 4 million. For data collection, a total of 4763 individuals were asked to complete a questionnaire on demographics, personality traits, life events, coping with stress, social support, and psychological outcomes such as anxiety and depression. To evaluate the comprehensive relationship between the variables, a path model was fitted.
RESULTS: The standard electronic modules showed that personality traits and perceived stress are important determinants of psychological outcomes. Social support and coping strategies were demonstrated to reduce the increasing cumulative positive effects of neuroticism and perceived stress on the psychological outcomes and enhance the protective effect of extraversion through decreasing the positive effect of perceived stress on the psychological outcomes.
CONCLUSION: Personal resources play an important role in reduction and prevention of anxiety and depression. In order to improve the psychological health, it is necessary to train and reinforce the adaptive coping strategies and social support, and thus, to moderate negative personality traits.
Core tip: Personality traits, stressful life events and personal resources (coping strategies and social support) are among the factors that can influence psychological outcomes. Personality traits have an important role as the basis for coping skills and social support. Stressful life events and personal resources can modulate psychological outcomes. There is a vital role for holistic medicine which addresses the whole aspects of personality, perceived stress, and personal resource for mental health. The presence of a model that includes all the factors influencing the mental health allows planning for improvements with reality-based interventions.
