ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Personality and Social Psychology
Linking Personality Traits to Psychological Distress among Early-Career PhD Faculty: A Gender-Based Canonical Analysis
Provisionally accepted
- 1Xihua University, Chengdu, China
- 2Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, China
- 3Tibet University, Lhasa, China
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Objective: Early-career doctoral faculty face unique stressors that may impact their mental health, yet gender-specific personality-mental health patterns in this population remain underexplored, especially within Chinese higher education. Methods: Using simple random sampling, 329 newly appointed doctoral faculty members (<35 years, <1 year teaching experience) were recruited from three comprehensive universities in Chengdu, Southwest China. Personality traits were measured with the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF), and mental health was assessed using the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90). Descriptive, comparative, and canonical correlation analyses (CCA) were conducted, with interpretation based on effect sizes (Rc²) and structure coefficients (|rs|≥.30) rather than nominal p-values. Results: About 16.7% of participants screened positive for psychological distress, with obsessive–compulsive symptoms and interpersonal sensitivity being most frequent. Female faculty reported higher anxiety than males. Gender differences also emerged in personality profiles, with men scoring higher in dominance, privateness, and self-reliance, and women higher in warmth and abstractedness. CCA revealed moderate, theoretically consistent associations between personality and mental-health dimensions (men: Rc=.57, Rc²=32%; women: Rc=.41, Rc²=16.9%). Social boldness and rule-consciousness were inversely linked to interpersonal and somatic distress, whereas tension and apprehension predicted broader symptom elevation. Conclusion: Personality configurations are moderately associated with mental-health outcomes among early-career doctoral faculty, with stronger multivariate coupling in men. Findings highlight the need for gender-sensitive, person–environment-fit interventions—such as supportive mentoring, balanced workloads, and accessible counseling—to promote sustainable well-being in academic settings.
Keywords: young doctoral faculty, personality trait, Mental Health, gender differences, Canonicalcorrelation analysis
Received: 09 Jul 2025; Accepted: 11 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Li, Pan, Jia, Wang, Ma and Li. 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: Tao Zhang, zhangtao1698@xhu.edu.cn
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