Health-related behaviour and personality trait development in adulthood Mark S. Allen a,⇑ , Stewart A. Vella b , Sylvain Laborde c,d a School of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Wollongong, Northfields Avenue, Wollongong 2522, NSW, Australia b Early Start Research Institute, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Wollongong, Northfields Avenue, Wollongong 2522, NSW, Australia c EA 4260, University of Caen, France d Department of Performance Psychology, German Sport University Cologne, Germany article info Article history: Received 9 May 2015 Revised 14 September 2015 Accepted 21 October 2015 Available online 23 October 2015 Keywords: Five-factor model Physical activity Smoking Diet Fruit and vegetable Alcohol consumption abstract This investigation explored the contribution of a healthy lifestyle to personality trait stability and change during adulthood. A nationally representative sample of 11,133 Australian adults completed self-report measures of health-related behaviour and personality traits at baseline (2010) and again four years later (2014). Results showed that physical activity and alcohol intake, and to a lesser extent diet and cigarette smoking, were important for mean-level change and intra-individual stability of personality for all trait dimensions. Moreover, positive health behaviours were associated with less of a decrease in extraversion and more of an increase in openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness over four years. These findings suggest that healthy living might help to facilitate desirable personality trait stability and change during adulthood. Ó 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Several critical lifestyle choices have been found to have impli- cations for individuals’ health and well-being. For example, people that take part in regular physical activity show a lower incidence of non-communicable diseases (Lee et al., 2012) and all-cause mortal- ity (Samitz, Egger, & Zwahlen, 2011), a lower prevalence of depres- sive and anxiety disorders (Daley et al., 2015; Ekkekakis, 2015), and increased cognitive functioning (Prakash, Voss, Erickson, & Kramer, 2015). Regular cigarette smokers are also at greater risk of coronary heart disease (Huxley & Woodward, 2011), multiple cancers (Liang, Chen, & Giovannucci, 2009; Lynch et al., 2009), and several mental disorders (Taylor et al., 2014). Excessive alcohol consumption has been connected to over 30 chronic conditions including liver and pancreatic disease, diabetes, and neuropsychi- atric disorders (Rehm, 2011). A healthy diet on the other hand (e.g., high fruit and vegetable intake) is associated with a reduced risk of diabetes (Cooper et al., 2012), ischaemic heart disease (Crowe et al., 2011), some cancers (Aune et al., 2011; Boffetta et al., 2010), and cognitive decline (Loef & Walach, 2012; Lourida et al., 2013). Thus, there is strong evidence that healthy living has benefits for physical and psychological functioning, but little is known about how such lifestyle choices might contribute to per- sonality trait development. Personality traits have been found to correlate with each of these health-related behaviours. Meta-analytic reviews show that personality traits correlate with alcohol consumption (Malouff, Thorsteinsson, Rooke, & Schutte, 2007; also see Hakulinen et al., 2015), smoking involvement (Malouff, Thorsteinsson, & Schutte, 2006; Munafo, Zetteler, & Clark, 2007), physical activity (Rhodes & Smith, 2006; Wilson & Dishman, 2015), and fruit and vegetable intake (Lunn, Nowson, Worsley, & Torres, 2014). These investiga- tions show that – for the major dimensions of personality – neu- roticism is associated with decreased physical activity, increased alcohol consumption, and increased smoking involvement; extraversion is associated with increased physical activity, increased alcohol consumption, and increased smoking involve- ment; openness is associated with increased fruit and vegetable intake, increased physical activity, and increased alcohol consump- tion; agreeableness is associated with decreased alcohol consump- tion, and decreased smoking involvement; and conscientiousness is associated with increased fruit and vegetable intake, increased physical activity, decreased alcohol consumption, and decreased smoking involvement. There is clear evidence for an association between personality and health-related behaviour. However, it remains unclear whether people with particular personality traits gravitate towards http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2015.10.005 0092-6566/Ó 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail address: mark_allen@uow.edu.au (M.S. Allen). Journal of Research in Personality 59 (2015) 104–110 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Research in Personality journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jrp