Adult Personality and Its Relationship with Stress Level, Coping Mechanism and Academic Performance among Undergraduate Nursing Students

BACKGROUND: Stress related to nursing education and clinical placement encounters by students since the beginning of their nursing course has been an issue of concern. This study aims to examine the prevalence of adult personality traits and their relationship with stress levels, coping mechanisms and academic performance among nursing students. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 92 nursing students at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). The Big Five Inventory (BFI), Student Nurse Stress Index and Brief COPE instruments were used to measure the respondents’ personality traits, stress level and coping mechanisms, respectively. Data were analysed using IBM SPSS version 26. RESULTS: The most prevalent personality trait of the students was openness (mean = 33.58). Conscientiousness (r = −0.226, P = 0.030) and neuroticism (r = 0.326, P = 0.002) are significantly related to stress level. Extraversion (r = 0.219, P = 0.036), conscientiousness (r = 0.206, P = 0.049) and openness (r = 0.219, P = 0.036) show significant relationships with the approach coping mechanism, while agreeableness (r = −0.257, P = 0.013) and neuroticism (r = 0.297, P = 0.004) show significant relationships with the avoidant coping mechanism. However, no significant relationship was noted between personality traits and academic performance (r = 1.000, P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Knowledge of ones’ personality traits may benefit students in understanding themselves and in using the best ways to cope with their stress while studying nursing.