Yeshiva University
Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology

Author Of 1 Presentation

Patient-Reported Outcomes and Quality of Life Poster Presentation

P1029 - Examining the relationship between the Multiple Sclerosis Resiliency Scale and the Five Factor Model of Personality (ID 905)

Speakers
Presentation Number
P1029
Presentation Topic
Patient-Reported Outcomes and Quality of Life

Abstract

Background

When faced with challenges related to their multiple sclerosis (MS), persons with MS can respond a number of ways. Being resilient or “bouncing back” is a common response. The association between trait resilience and the Five Factor Model of personality (neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness) has been examined with a number of resiliency measures, but not yet with the MS Resiliency Scale (MSRS), a measure designed to assess the psychological, physical, and social aspects pertaining to resilience to MS-related challenges.

Objectives

To examine the relationship between the MSRS and personality factors, as measured by the 60-item NEO Five Factor Inventory-3 (NEO-FFI-3).

Methods

Participants (n = 111) were persons with MS who completed a brief neuropsychological battery as part of a larger study examining self-management behaviors. Pearson’s correlation coefficients were used to examine the associations between the MSRS and the Five Factor Model. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses were run to determine how well the personality factors classified persons with high resilience on the MSRS (defined as ≥75th percentile).

Results

The MSRS total score has a large, negative association with neuroticism (r = -.61, p <.001), moderate, positive associations with conscientiousness (r = .44, p <.001) and extraversion (r = .43, p <.001), and a small, positive association with agreeableness (r = .27, p = .004). There was no significant relationship with openness (r = .02, p = .818). Neuroticism had good classification of high resilience (AUC = .84), with a T-score of 45 and below having 79% sensitivity and specificity. Extraversion and conscientiousness both had fair classification accuracy (AUC = .75) with their respective cut-off T-scores (≥57 and ≥53) having sensitivities of 62% and 69% and specificities of 85% and 72%.

Conclusions

Consistent with previous research, higher resilience to MS-related challenges was related to lower neuroticism, higher extraversion and conscientiousness, and to a lesser extent, agreeableness. These findings suggest that individuals who are more resilient experience fewer negative emotions and greater levels of self-control and social engagement, providing further insight into how persons with MS cope with MS-related challenges. Future interventions targeting resilience should consider building upon individual strengths (self-control, social engagement) while simultaneously reducing relative weaknesses (emotional dysregulation).

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