Relationship between academic performance, personality traits, and anxiety level among Egyptian undergraduate nursing students: a correlational research study.

Abstract

Background: University students encounter a variety of challenges and stressors that have an impact on various aspects of their lives, including their personal well-being, resilience, socialization, and character development. The identification of students' personality traits and their correlation with future anxiety is crucial in determining the degree to which they possess the capacity to adjust and confront challenges.

Methods: This cross-sectional, correlational study involved 654 students from the Faculty of Nursing at Mansoura University. Data were collected by a sociodemographic questionnaire, a Big Five Inventory questionnaire, and Zung's self-rating anxiety questionnaire. Data were analyzed using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Kruskal Wallis, and Mann-Whitney tests with the IBM SPSS software package, version 20.0.

Results: The personality trait of openness was the most frequently observed among the participants, with a mean of 33.15 ± 7.22. A significant proportion of students76.0%, demonstrated an absence of feeling anxiety. A statistically significant relationship (P < 0.001) was detected between the personality traits of agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism and levels of anxiety. Furthermore, no significant correlation was found between anxiety and the traits of openness and extraversion.

Conclusions: This study contributes to understanding the correlation between undergraduate nursing students' academic achievement, personality traits, and anxiety levels. Thus, students must understand their personalities and highlight the importance of their psychological well-being.