Exploring the relationship between personality traits, social appearance anxiety, and quality of life among nursing students.

Background: Nursing students represent a unique group that faces specific stressors. One of these stressors is social appearance anxiety, which can adversely affect the quality of life. Personality traits are strong predictors of coping with stress and anxiety. This study explored the relationship between personality traits, social appearance anxiety, and quality of life among nursing students.

Methods: The study employed a correlational descriptive cross-sectional research design. One thousand twenty-one students from the bachelor program's first, second, third, and fourth years participated in the study. The data was collected over three months from June to August 2024 by using four tools: the student's academic and socio-demographic profile, Novo Psych Five Factor Personality Scale (NFFPS-30), Social anxiety about appearance Scale (SAAS)., and The WHO Quality of Life Scale-Brief (WHOQOL-Brief).

Results: The personality trait with the highest mean score is agreeableness (21.0 ±2.8), while neuroticism has the lowest mean score (18.4 ±4.3). (SAAS) results show that the majority of students (79.5%) experience low social anxiety levels. Additionally, (WHOQOL-Brief), general health, and social domains had the highest mean scores (58.2 and 53.2), compared to the physical domain, which scored the lowest at (40.6).

Conclusion: The study concluded that all personality traits correlate significantly negatively with SAAS except neuroticism. QOL was positively correlated with all personality traits except neuroticism. SAAS and neuroticism traits of personality are strong negative predictors of QOL. Further research and interventional programs are necessary to detect students' level of anxiety and their personality traits and improve their social appearance anxiety.