ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Personality and Social Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1603507
The Association of Big-Five Personality with Co-rumination and Its Trade-off Effect in Chinese Adolescents: A Cross-sectional Study
Provisionally accepted
- 1School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China
- 2Center for Studies of Psychological Application, School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China
- 3Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences, Ministry of Education, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China
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Co-rumination involves excessive discussion of negative events with peers. It has a trade-off effect, improving friendship quality but risking internalizing problems in adolescents. Previous studies have shown group differences in the trade-off effects of co-rumination. This study, using a sample of Chinese adolescents (N=765), validated previous research findings and comprehensively explored the relationship between the Big Five personality traits and co-rumination through three-part latent variable modeling analysis. It aimed to explain group differences in co-rumination trade-off patterns and identify at-risk groups through personality trait. Before modeling, the measurement invariance of the co-rumination questionnaire was first examined. The results indicated that scalar invariance was satisfied across gender groups, while only partial scalar invariance was met across age groups. The first part of structural equation modeling showed that extraversion, neuroticism, and openness positively predicted co-rumination; neuroticism could explain gender differences in co-rumination. The second part verified the trade-off effects of co-rumination, finding that the risk pathway of co-rumination became more stable after controlling for the Big Five personality traits, with gender differences found in this pathway. The third part revealed different moderating effects of neuroticism, agreeableness, extraversion, and conscientiousness on the risk pathway. The results suggest that neuroticism can serve as a good indicator for identifying at-risk groups for co-rumination, with high-neuroticism individuals more likely to experience risks from co-rumination. High conscientiousness and agreeableness can alleviate depression and anxiety caused by co-rumination, respectively. Openness and extraversion both have more complex associations with co-rumination that require further research.
Keywords: co-rumination, Anxiety, Depression, Chinese adolescents, Big Five, Friendship quality
Received: 31 Mar 2025; Accepted: 21 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Luo and Luo. 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: Pinchao Luo, School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China
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