Association between morningness-eveningness and temperament and character in community-dwelling Korean adults.

Introduction Previous studies have reported an association between biogenetic temperament/character and circadian preference in Spanish or French college students. Our aim is to investigate the association between temperament/character and circadian preference in psychiatrically healthy, community-dwelling Korean adults of a wide age range. Methods Subjects free of Axis I disorders ( n = 342) completed the Morningness- Eveningness Questionnaire and the Temperament and Character Inventory. Results High Novelty Seeking and low Self- Directedness was associated with eveningness. In contrast to prior studies on college students, eveningness was associated with high (not low) Harm Avoidance. Eveningness- Novelty Seeking association and Eveningness- Harm Avoidance association were prominent in females. Eveningness- Novelty Seeking was prominent in the older group (age ≥40), while Eveningness- Harm Avoidance was prominent in the younger group (age ≤40). Discussion Despite the limitation of the small sample size, the present study suggests that eveningness is associated with high Novelty Seeking/ Harm Avoidance and low Self- Directedness in community-dwelling adults, and that this association may be related to age, gender, and other sociocultural factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]