Neurosis in young adults is fuelled by lockdown stress

YOUNG people have become more neurotic and difficult since the pandemic, a study conducted by researchers from the Florida State University college of medicine suggests.

The researchers assessed the personalities of 7,109 people aged between 18 and 109, comparing how traits such as neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness differed between pre-pandemic (May 2014 to February 2020), early pandemic (March to December 2020) and the pandemic’s later period (2021 and 2022).

Consistent with other studies, there were relatively few changes between the pre-pandemic and 2020 personality traits, with only a small variation in neuroticism.

However, people’s extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness all declined when the data from 2021-2022 was compared to that of the pre-pandemic period.

The changes were equivalent to how a person’s personality changes normally over a 10-year period, the researchers said.

Younger adults showed increased neuroticism and decreased agreeableness and conscientiousness while the oldest group of adults showed no statistically significant changes in traits.

The authors concluded that, if these changes were to last, it would suggest that population-wide stressful events can slightly bend the trajectory of personality development, especially in younger adults.

“There was limited change of personality early in the pandemic but striking changes from 2021,” revealed the report, which was published in the journal PLOS ONE.

“Young adults changed the most, with marked increases in neuroticism and declines in agreeableness and conscientiousness. Younger adults became moodier, more prone to stress, less cooperative and trusting, and less restrained and responsible.”