ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psychology for Clinical Settings
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1629825
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Intersection of Psychology, Healthy Behaviors, and its OutcomesView all 123 articles
Associations Among Personality Traits, Emotional States, and Self-Management Behavior With Quality of Life in Type 2 Diabetes: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach Examining Emotional Mediation
Provisionally accepted
- Hangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention (HZCDC), Hangzhou, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: Current empirical literature demonstrates a paucity of evidence elucidating the intricate network relationships between personality traits, emotion states, self-management behaviors, and quality of life (QOL) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM). This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate these relationships using structural equation modeling(SEM). Methods: A cohort of 839 T2DM patients was systematically recruited from 69 community health service centers in Hangzhou, China, between 2016 and 2020. Standardized instruments were administered to assess demographic characteristics, personality traits(Chinese Big Five Personality Inventory-15, CBF-PI-15), emotional states( Self-Rating Anxiety Scale [SAS] and Self-Rating Depression Scale [SDS]), self-management behaviors (Type 2 Diabetes Self-Care Scale, 2-DSCS), and QOL(MOS 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey, SF-36). Date analyses were performed using SPSS 26.0 and AMOS 21.0. Results: Descriptive statistics revealed the highest mean score for agreeableness (13.58 ±2.55), whereas self-management subdomains exhibited comparatively lower scores (blood glucose monitoring: 12.17 ± 4.10; regular exercise: 12.35 ±4.89). Significant anxiety and depressive symptoms were present in 20.4% and 28.6% of participants, respectively. Bivariate correlations show significant positive associations between self-management behaviors and both psychological/physiological QOL dimensions, alongside negative correlations with anxiety, depression, and neuroticism. The SEM analysis yielded excellent model fit indices (χ²/df =3.556, AGFI =0.946, GFI =0.967, CFI =0.957, IFI =0.957, RMSEA =0.055), with anxiety emerging as the most robust predictor of QOL (β = -0.542,), followed by depression (β = -0.360) and self-management behaviors (β = 0.342). Mediation analysis confirmed the significant intermediary roles of anxiety and depression in pathway linking self-management behaviors to QOL (indirect effects accounting for 33.70%、30.33% of total variance).Conclusion: These findings elucidate the complex psychobehavioral mechanisms underlying QOL in T2DM patients, highlighting the critical mediating role of emotional states between self-management and QOL. The results underscore the imperative for integrated interventions targeting both emotional regulation and behavioral modification in diabetes care protocols.
Keywords: Diabetes Mellitus, Personality, emotion, Self-management behaviors, Quality of Life, Structural Equation Modeling
Received: 16 May 2025; Accepted: 15 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Fu, Xu, Jiang, Liu, Yang and Qiu. 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: Wen Fu, Hangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention (HZCDC), Hangzhou, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.