The Association Between Personality Traits, COVID-19 Preventative Behavior, and SARS-CoV-2 Seroconversion in Undergraduate Students

Abstract

Background: Studies examining the association between personality traits and COVID-19 in undergraduate students are not in the current literature surrounding COVID-19. We aimed to assess the association between three personality traits: 1) urgency (impulsivity), 2) risk-taking, and 3) excitement-seeking and the use of COVID-19 prevention methods and incident SARSCoV-2 infection. We used data from a study conducted at Indiana University that included undergraduate students enrolled in the Fall 2020 semester.

Methods: To estimate the association between personality traits and avoiding social events as a method of COVID-19 prevention, risk ratios were estimated using generalized estimating equations (for within subject repeated measures) for Poisson regression, with multiple imputation of missing data. Log-binomial regression was used to estimate risk ratios for the relationship between the personality scales and incident SARS-CoV-2 infection. Finally, principal component analyses were conducted for both outcomes to combine the three personality scales into one model that accounted for multicollinearity.

Results: We did not observe any meaningful differences in avoiding social events by urgency, excitement-seeking, and risk-taking. We also found that for every 1-unit increase in students’ scores on both the excitement-seeking and risk-taking scale, there was a 0.25% (95% CI: iv 1.0003,1.0046) and 0.31% (95% CI: 1.0007,1.0056) significantly increased likelihood of seroconversion, respectively. From the results of the principal component regression, we did not observe any meaningful differences in avoiding social events or SARS-CoV-2 infection by urgency, excitement-seeking, or risk-taking.

Conclusion: Preliminary evidence does not point to a strong relationship between personality traits and COVID-19 protective behaviors in a college population. Further studies are recommended to explore the relationship of personality traits among different age groups in the context of COVID-19 prevention and SARS-CoV-2 infection. Additionally, personality traits should be studied in a different time period, specifically, when prevention methods are recommended, rather than required, to further explore this potential association between personality traits and use of COVID-19 prevention. Future research could also explore the relationship between personality traits and other highly infectious diseases.