Sleep quality modifies associations between four personality traits and depressive symptoms in Chinese adolescents, cross-sectional survey finds

In a cross-sectional survey of 20,320 students in northwestern China, neuroticism was positively associated with depressive symptoms, while conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness and extraversion were negatively associated with the symptoms in the primary model. The study’s abstract further reports that the associations for neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness and extraversion differed according to sleep quality; the interaction involving openness was not statistically significant.

Researchers examined the Big Five personality traits using multivariable linear regression models. The primary models adjusted for sociodemographic, family-related, behavioral and health-related covariates. Interaction terms between sleep quality and each personality trait tested whether the estimated personality–depressive symptom associations varied across levels of sleep quality. Sensitivity analyses additionally adjusted for social support, teacher–student relationships and peer relationships, while stratified analyses examined gender and grade-level subgroups. The supplied abstract does not report the direction or magnitude of differences by gender or grade, and it does not provide regression coefficients, confidence intervals, instrument names or other details needed to assess the precision and size of the findings.

After the additional adjustment for social support and interpersonal relationship factors, the associations involving agreeableness and openness were attenuated and no longer statistically significant. The pattern of sleep-quality interaction results remained unchanged in the sensitivity analysis. Based on the abstract, the negative associations involving conscientiousness and extraversion were therefore relatively robust to the additional covariates, whereas the agreeableness and openness associations were sensitive to that adjustment. The results do not establish whether social support or relationship factors mediate, confound or otherwise explain the observed associations.

These findings are summarized from the abstract of an observational, cross-sectional study. Such a design can identify statistical associations but cannot establish temporal order, causation or the direction of relationships among personality, sleep quality and depressive symptoms. The evidence is limited to the surveyed student population in northwestern China, and the abstract does not provide detailed information about recruitment, response rates, missing data, depression measurement or the sample’s demographic composition. Accordingly, the results do not demonstrate that changing sleep quality or personality traits would change depressive symptoms or provide clinical benefits.

Subject of Research: Cross-sectional associations among Big Five personality traits, sleep quality and depressive symptoms in Chinese adolescents

Article Title: Associations between personality traits and depressive symptoms vary by sleep quality among Chinese adolescents: a large cross-sectional study

Article References: Hu, B., Chen, C., Zhang, M., & Guo, J. (2026). Associations between personality traits and depressive symptoms vary by sleep quality among Chinese adolescents: a large cross-sectional study. BMC Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-026-05708-7

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s40359-026-05708-7

Keywords: adolescents, Big Five personality, sleep quality, depressive symptoms, cross-sectional study, Chinese students, neuroticism, conscientiousness, extraversion, social support, Associations, between