The Relative Contribution of the Big Five Personality Traits in Predicting Cyberchondria among University Students

The current study aimed to identify the levels of the Big Five personality traits (Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism) and cyberchondria among university students, and to examine the association between these personality traits and cyberchondria while considering demographic factors such as gender and college type. The study sample consisted of 500 male and female students from Ajloun National University and Jadara University in Jordan, selected using convenience sampling. The study utilized the Cyberchondria Severity Scale and the Big Five Inventory (BFI).The study results showed that the levels of Openness to Experience, Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Neuroticism among university students were high, while the level of Agreeableness was moderate. The traits were ranked in the following order: Openness to Experience ranked first, followed by Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Agreeableness. Statistically significant differences were found in the mean scores of Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and Agreeableness attributed to gender, favoring males compared to females. No statistically significant differences were found in Openness to Experience and Neuroticism attributed to gender. A statistically significant difference was found in Neuroticism attributed to college type, with students from scientific colleges recording higher levels compared to students from humanities colleges, while no significant differences were recorded in the other traits. A significant gender × college interaction was found for Conscientiousness. The results also indicated that the level of cyberchondria among university students was moderate. Furthermore, there were statistically significant differences in cyberchondria mean scores attributed to gender and college type, favoring females compared to males and favoring students from humanities colleges compared to those from scientific colleges. Correlation analysis revealed that all five personality traits were significantly associated with cyberchondria (all p < 0.001). However, stepwise regression analysis indicated that Agreeableness and Neuroticism were the unique predictors, with cyberchondria decreasing with increasing Agreeableness and increasing with increasing Neuroticism.