ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1502890
Determining the Interconnection Between Personality and Physical Activity on Perceived Stress in a Diverse Sample
Provisionally accepted
- 1Salem VA Health Care System, Salem, United States
- 2Veterans Integrated Service Network 6 Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center, Durham, United States
- 3School of Medicine, Virginia Tech Carilion, Roanoke, Virginia, United States
- 4Grossman School of Medicine, New York University, New York, New York, United States
- 5Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C., United States
- 6Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, United States
- 7Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States
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Introduction: Stress is considered an epidemic with far-reaching deleterious impacts across multiple domains while engagement in physical activity (PA), a proven way to reduce perceived stress (PS), remains low. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the Five Factor Model (FFM) personality factors and self-reported PA have independent main effects on PS, and to examine the interaction between PA and personality on PS. We predicted that neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, and PA would predict PS. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted. Participants were adults without anxiety disorders who completed online surveys including the IPIP-NEO-120, PSS-10, and IPAQ-Long. An iterative series of linear regressions were used to determine whether personality characteristics and PA were related to PS and to detect interactive effects. Results: The final sample included 276 participants who were, on average, mostly non-White (62%), reported moderate level of PS (Mean PSS Total Score=17.01, SD=6.74), and reported high levels of PA (Mean Total MET-minutes per week= 2,994.81, SD=2,620.92). The hypothesis was partially supported such that neuroticism (B=0.02, p=<.001) and conscientiousness (B= 0.02, p=<.001) predicted PS, though PA did not. Only openness to experience demonstrated an interactive effect, with those high in openness to experience and PA tended to have higher PS. Discussion: This study provides additional support for the relationship between the FFM of personality and PS. Future studies on the connection between PS, personality, and PA may benefit from the use of a combined approach, including both self-report and objective measures of PA.
Keywords: Exercise, individual differences, precision medicine, Mental Health, Personality
Received: 27 Sep 2024; Accepted: 13 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Courtney, Schadegg, Brice, Friedman and Fanning. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Rena Elizabeth Courtney, rena.courtney2@va.gov
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