THE BIG FIVE PERSONALITY TRAITS AS PREDICTORS OF ACADEMIC STRESS AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN BAYELSA STATE

Abstract

The study investigated big five personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, conscientiousness, and agreeableness) as predictors of academic stress among university students in Bayelsa State. Two research questions were answered and two null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The design of the study is correlational. The population of the study was 9,504 first year university students (regular). The sample size for the study was 670 university students (343 males and 327 females). Simple random sampling and proportionate stratified random sampling methods were used to obtain the sample. Two instruments were used for data collection: self-designed Academic Stress Scale (ASS), and the Big Five Inventory (BFI-44) by John and Srivastava (1999) which was adapted for the study. The face and content validities were determined for the instruments. The reliability of each instrument was determined with the Cronbach alpha technique. ASS had a coefficient of .75; and BFI-44, .77, with sections namely: neuroticism, α = .80; extraversion, α =.78; openness to experience, α = .76; conscientiousness, α = .74; agreeableness, α = .79. The research questions were answered by means of multiple regression while the hypotheses were analysed with t-test and ANOVA associated with multiple regression. The findings showed the big five personality traits combined, significantly predicted academic stress among university students It was found that personality traits of neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness except openness to experience independently and significantly predicted academic stress among university students. The researchers recommended that university administrators should use students’ personality information as guide in providing help services for students to cope with academic stress.