Big Five Personality Traits and Academic Stress Among Undergraduate Psychology Students

Academic stress remains a persistent problem among university students and may hinder academic performance and psychological well-being if not properly managed. Individual differences, particularly personality traits, are assumed to play an important role in how students perceive and respond to academic demands. This study aimed to examine the relationship between the Big Five personality dimensions and academic stress among undergraduate psychology students. A total of 116 students from the Faculty of Psychology at Universitas Islam Riau participated in this study. Data were collected using the Big Five Inventory (BFI) and an academic stress scale. Due to non-normal data distribution, Spearman’s Rank correlation analysis was employed to test the relationships between personality dimensions and academic stress. The results showed a significant positive correlation between neuroticism and academic stress (p < 0.05), indicating that students with higher emotional instability experienced higher levels of academic stress. In contrast, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness were significantly and negatively correlated with academic stress (p < 0.05). Among these traits, openness demonstrated a moderate negative correlation with academic stress (r = −0.366), accounting for approximately 11.9% of the variance in stress levels. In conclusion, personality traits are significantly associated with academic stress, with neuroticism functioning as a risk factor and the remaining Big Five traits serving as protective factors. These findings highlight the importance of considering personality differences in the development of academic stress management interventions in higher education.