The Relationship between Personality Traits and Psychological Resilience among the Caribbean Adolescents

Abstract

This cross-sectional study investigated the relationships between the big five personality traits:
(conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness to experience, extraversion) and psychological
resilience among 397 Caribbean secondary school adolescents. Pearson Product Moment Correlation and
Stepwise Multiple Regressions were conducted to analyse the data. Results revealed statistically significant
positive relationships between the personality traits (conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness to experience,
extraversion) and psychological resilience, while neuroticism was negatively correlated with psychological
resilience. The personality traits also jointly contributed 32% (R square = 0.324) of the variance being accounted
for in psychological resilience and this was found to be statistically significant with conscientiousness being the
best predictor while agreeableness, neuroticism and openness to experience were other significant predictors,
however, extraversion did not contribute significantly. These results are discussed in the light of healthy
personality beefing up and promoting adolescents’ psychological resilience.