Personality Traits and Its Effect on Anxiety, Depression and Various Coping Strategies among Clinical and Non-Clinical Dental Students

Abstract Introduction: Personality is a significant prognosticator of academic success during the training years at medical school. It influences doctors’ collaboration and communication abilities in future professional practice. There is an established relationship of personality traits with anxiety and depression Aim of the study: To assess the anxiety, depression, and personality Traits: A Comparative Analysis of Clinical and Nonclinical Dental Students. Material and Methods: A cross‑sectional, questionnaire‑based study was carried out among undergraduate dental students. Questions were related to the consumption of alcohol, smoking, chewing gums, and chocolates. Validated questionnaires such as the Hospital and Anxiety Scale and Eysenck Personality Questionnaire‑A Scale were used for evaluating anxiety and depression and personality traits, respectively. The statistical analysis was done using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (version 24.0). Chi‑square test, Student’s t‑test, and Pearson’s correlation coefficient were used for analysis, and the level of significance was set at P < 0.05 Results: The results showed that males in nonclinical years (3.81 ± 1.18) and females in clinical years (4 ± 0.85) were more extrovert than their counterparts, whereas males and females in clinical years were more psychotic than males (3.26 ± 0.45) and females (3.03 ± 0.84) in nonclinical years. It was found that females in clinical years were more anxious and depressed than their counterparts. When extraversion was correlated with anxiety and depression, a negative correlation (‑0.05,‑0.63) was seen which was statistically significant for depression (P = 0.01), whereas a positive correlation was seen when psychoticism was correlated with anxiety (0.16, P = 0.61) and depression (0.5, P = 0.02). Among the total participants, a majority consumed chocolates as a coping strategy. Conclusion: It was observed that many dental students who were in their clinical years had more anxiety and depression as compared to their nonclinical peers which could be due to their personality traits. Interventions should be targeted to deal with these problems