Investigating the Relationship between Individual Personality Traits (Internality-Externality) and Psychological Distress in Employees in Japan

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between the internality-externality (I-E) scale as an indicator of coping styles and the Kessler 6 (K6) scale as an indicator of psychological distress and analyzes the effect of sociodemographic and employment-related factors on this relationship. Employees from Akita prefecture in Japan were invited to complete self-administered questionnaires. A uniform pattern of findings emerged in the relationship between the two scales: all the significant correlations were negative; that is, as the I-E score increased, the K6 score decreased. Furthermore, significant effects were observed for the I-E scale regarding sex, age, education, employee type, employment status, and the K6 scale with multiple regression analyses. Among these, the effect of the K6 scale was significant for the I-E scale in both males and females. The results of this study may help improve mental health clinicians' understanding of psychological distress in employees.