Personality traits and alcohol use among undergraduates at Benue State University Makurdi

Abstract Background Personality traits may be associated with alcohol use among university students, but findings vary across populations and measures. This study examined associations between the Big Five personality traits and alcohol use among undergraduates at Benue State University, Makurdi, Nigeria. Methods A cross-sectional questionnaire survey included 351 undergraduate students. Separate simple linear regression analyses examined openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, and agreeableness in relation to alcohol use. Results Openness to experience showed a small positive association with alcohol use (β = .125, R² = .016, F(1, 349) = 5.521, p = .019). The reported regressions for conscientiousness (β = −.077, p ≈ .149), extraversion (β = −.003, p = .960), neuroticism (β = .071, p ≈ .186), and agreeableness (β = −.050, p = .353) were not statistically significant. Conclusion In this sample, openness to experience was associated with alcohol use, although the model explained a small proportion of outcome variance. The cross-sectional findings do not establish causality.