Influence of Personality and Differences in Stress Processing Among Finnish Students on Interest to Use a Mobile Stress Management App: Survey Study

Excessive stress has a negative impact on many aspects of life for both individuals and societies, from studying and working to health and well-being. Each individual has their unique level of stress-proneness, and positive or negative outcomes of stress may be affected by it. Technology-aided inter...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:JMIR mental health 2019-05, Vol.6 (5), p.e10039-e10039
Main Authors: Ervasti, Mari, Kallio, Johanna, Määttänen, Ilmari, Mäntyjärvi, Jani, Jokela, Markus
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anxiety
Coping
Health behavior
Influence
Intervention
Mental depression
Mental health
Original Paper
Personality
Personality traits
Questionnaires
Stress
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Summary:Excessive stress has a negative impact on many aspects of life for both individuals and societies, from studying and working to health and well-being. Each individual has their unique level of stress-proneness, and positive or negative outcomes of stress may be affected by it. Technology-aided interventions have potential efficacy in the self-management of stress. However, current Web-based or mobile stress management solutions may not reach the individuals that would need them the most, that is, stress-sensitive people. The aim of this study was to examine how personality is associated with stress among Finnish university students and their interest to use apps that help in managing stress. We used 2 structured online questionnaires (combined, n=1001) that were advertised in the University of Helsinki's mailing lists. The first questionnaire (n=635) was used to investigate intercorrelations between the Big Five personality variables (neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness) and other stress-related background variables. The second questionnaire (n=366) was used to study intercorrelations between the above-mentioned study variables and interest in using stress management apps. The quantitative findings of the first questionnaire showed that higher levels of extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness were associated with lower self-reported stress. Neuroticism, in turn, was found to be strongly associated with rumination, anxiety, and depression. The findings of the second questionnaire indicated that individuals characterized by the Big Five personality traits of neuroticism and agreeableness were particularly interested to use stress management apps (r=.27, P
ISSN:2368-7959
2368-7959
DOI:10.2196/10039