Personality Change Across Four Years in World Trade Center Responders

Details

• Journal Article:
  European Journal of Personality
• Personal Author:
  Khudari, Christopher ; Oltmanns, Joshua R. ; Ruggero, Camilo J. ; Luft, Benjamin J. ; Kotov, Roman
• Description:
  The present study investigated personality change over the course of a four-year longitudinal study in N = 452 older adults who responded to the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center (Mage = 55 years, SD = 0.41). This sample provides the rare opportunity to compare normative findings of personality change with change in a unique group with a common trauma. Participants completed the Faceted Inventory of the Five-Factor Model and the Big Five Inventory-2 across four years. Latent growth modeling showed significant mean-level decreases in Openness and Extraversion. At the facet-level, significant decreases were found for Aesthetic Sensitivity, Creative Imagination, Intellectual Curiosity, Anxiety, Anger Proneness, Positive Temperament, Venturesomeness, Ascendence, Empathy, and Achievement Striving. Further, responders showed variability in change-in particular, for Neuroticism and its facets. Regressions from exposure level and age on personality change were also examined. Results highlight the importance of facet-level analysis, as significant change was found only for certain facets within domains-sometimes when the domains showed no change. Differences between responders and normative comparisons were examined. Responders share unique trauma and personality findings may allow clinically useful information on the mental-health problems that responders experience.
• Subjects:
  Emergency Responders Mental Health Occupational Health Safety September 11 Terrorist Attacks
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Personality Change; World-trade-center; Big Five; Longitudinal; Responders World Trade Center; WTC; Longitudinal Study; Mental Health; Psychology; Traumatic Incident Stress; Personality Traits; Psychological Effects; Emergency Responders;
• Source:
  Eur J Pers 2025 May; 39(3):323-335
• ISSN:
  0890-2070
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  New York ; Texas ; New York City Region [OSHA] ; Dallas Region [OSHA]
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  13 pdf pages
• Volume:
  39
• Issue:
  3
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20071505
• Contact Point Address:
  Christopher Khudari, Department of Psychology, Rosalind Franklin University, 3333 Green Bay Road, North Chicago, IL 60064, USA
• Email:
  christopher.khudari@my.rfums.org
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2025
• Performing Organization:
  State University of New York - Stony Brook
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20160901
• End Date:
  20210831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:4c26565aa6a6b9fc31472bd2c829770ceef5cfe56e5bcabaae428892960dad03390a7be0b729b8ee2c58b6b35f8a0d770b9fed90c88e06550ca0f8eea8cebbf6
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/259102/cdc_259102_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.60 MB ]