Research on the Relationship between Well-being and Personality Traits in the Elderly Based on Canonical Correlation Analysis

Background With the population ages, the mental health of the elderly has become a hot topic of concern for the whole society. Previous studies have shown that mental health problems in the elderly are closely related to well-being, while personality traits have a greater impact on subjective well-being. However, the internal relationship between the two in the elderly population is still unclear. Objective To explore the relationship between subjective well-being and personality traits of the elderly. Methods From July to August 2022, 511 elderly people in Lincun, Tangxia Town, Dongguan City, Guangdong Province were selected as the subjects by using cluster sampling method, conduct a site survey by using the questionnaire survey. The subjective well-being and personality traits of the elderly were evaluated by the Memorial University of Newfoundland Scale of Happiness (MUNSH) and the China Big Five Personality Scale (CBF-PI-15) respectively. Pearson correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between subjective well-being and personality traits of the elderly, canonical correlation analysis was used to construct a standardized canonical correlation model, canonical structure analysis, and canonical redundancy analysis. Results The total score of MUNSH in the elderly was (39.72±7.74) , and the scores of MUNSH in each dimension were positive experience (9.48±3.24) , positive emotion (8.61±2.24) , negative experience (1.44±2.31) , and negative emotion (0.93±1.80) from high to low. The scores of CBF-PI-15 in each dimension of the elderly were agreeableness (14.04±2.60) , extroversion (11.77±4.05) , conscientiousness (10.75±3.57) , openness (7.20±3.90) and neuroticism (6.34±3.22) . Pearson correlation analysis showed that subjective well-being was positively correlated with conscientiousness (r=0.334) and openness (r=0.219) (P