THE BIG FIVE FACTOR PERSONALITY AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING: MEDIATING ROLE OF SELF-ESTEEM

T This study aimed to examine the mediating role of self-esteem in the relations between big five factor personality traits and psychological well-being. The sample consisted of 327 undergraduate students (148 males ,179 females) of Shahid Chamran University located in Ahvaz. The participants were selected using multi-stage cluster sampling. The participants completed the Big Five Factor Personality Scale (FFPS; Goldberg, 1999), the Self-Esteem Scale (SES; Rosenberg, 1965) and the Psychological Well-Being Scale (PWBS; Ryff, 1989). The results indicated that the traits of extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness (P<0.01) and conscientiousness (P<0.001) had direct and positive effects on the psychological well-being, and the trait of neuroticism (P<0.001) had direct and negative effect on the psychological well-being. The big five factor personality indirectly related to more psychological well-being through self-esteem. The findings suggest that self-esteem play a mediatory role between big five factor personality and psychological well-being. These findingss emphasize the importance of big five personality traits in promoting self-esteem which in turn increases students’ psychological well-being.