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. 2014 Aug;5(6):722-729.
doi: 10.1177/1948550614524448.

Personality Change Pre- to Post- Loss in Spousal Caregivers of Patients with Terminal Lung Cancer

Michael Hoerger  1 , Benjamin P Chapman  2 , Holly G Prigerson  3 , Angela Fagerlin  4 , Supriya G Mohile  2 , Ronald M Epstein  2 , Jeffrey M Lyness  2 , Paul R Duberstein  2
Affiliations

Personality Change Pre- to Post- Loss in Spousal Caregivers of Patients with Terminal Lung Cancer

Michael Hoerger et al. Soc Psychol Personal Sci. 2014 Aug.

Abstract

Personality is relatively stable in adulthood but could change in response to life transitions, such as caring for a spouse with a terminal illness. Using a case-control design, spousal caregivers (n=31) of patients with terminal lung cancer completed the NEO-FFI twice, 1.5 years apart, before and after the patient's death. A demographically-matched sample of community controls (n=93) completed the NEO-FFI on a similar timeframe. Based on research and theory, we hypothesized that bereaved caregivers would experience greater changes than controls in interpersonal facets of extraversion (sociability), agreeableness (prosocial, nonantagonistic), and conscientiousness (dependability). Consistent with hypotheses, bereaved caregivers experienced an increase in interpersonal orientation, becoming more sociable, prosocial, and dependable (Cohen's d = .48-.67), though there were no changes in nonantagonism. Changes were not observed in controls (ds ≤ .11). These initial findings underscore the need for more research on the effect of life transitions on personality.

Keywords: Bereavement adjustment; Caregiving; Personality change.

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Conflict of interest statement

DECLARATION OF CONFLICT OF INTEREST:

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interests with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Percentage of participants experiencing reliable changes (RCI ≥ 1.96) in any of on the NEO-FFI personality facets. Supporting our first hypothesis, bereaved spousal caregivers were significantly more likely to experience personality change than matched community controls over the 1.5-year follow-up period. Error bars indicate the standard error of the mean
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