Fatigue as Moderator of the Relationship Between Personality and the Affective Dimensions of Well-Being

This study examines the role of fatigue as a possible moderating factor of the relationship between personality and the affective dimensions of well-being: positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA), as well as affect balance. At the end of their work shift, 218 nursing professionals filled out self-report questionnaires assessing PA, NA, the Big Five personality dimensions and their level of fatigue. A series of moderated multiple regression analyses were conducted to test the study hypotheses. The results showed that fatigue moderates the relationship between neuroticism and NA, and the relationship between extraversion and both PA and affect balance. These findings reported here constitute strong evidence in support of temperamental and instrumental models that attempt to explain why extraversion is consistently related to PA and why neuroticism is consistently related to NA; moreover, in line with these results, it can be postulated that energy level serves as a background in which the relationship between extraversion and both PA and affect balance may become effective. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014