Traumatic Life Events as Sources of Big Five Personality Trait Change: The Moderating Role of Control Beliefs

Although prior research has shed light on the impact of selected life events on personality trait change, less is known about the role of traumatic life events as sources of personality trait change. Furthermore, we shed light on the role of person-specific control beliefs that possibly function as resources in developmental processes and, thus, might buffer (or amplify) the impact of challenging and largely uncontrollable life events. Using US secondary data from the Health and Retirement Study (N =3,232, Mage = 66.66, range 50 to 100 years of age, 61% females), a large-scale, nationally representative prospective panel study, we estimated latent change score models to examine effects of traumatic life events on personality trait development in middle and late adulthood. Overall, we detect small to medium-sized significant effects of three traumatic events: The death of a child relates to less pronounced increases in Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, and Agreeableness, whereas the experience of a physical attack relates to less pronounced increases in Conscientiousness. In contrast, the experience of an own life-threatening illness is linked to more positive changes in Conscientiousness. Furthermore, results suggest that perceived constraints in control could be beneficial in dealing with severe life events.