The effects of childhood abuse,big five personality on anxiety of college students: a path analysis

Objective To study the mediating effect of big five personality between childhood abuse and anxiety of college students, and to provide basis to intervene their mental disorder.Methods Through stratified sampling,2374 college students in Jiangsu were investigated by the personal report of childhood abuse( PRCA),self-rating anxiety scale(SAS) and the revised NEO five-factor Inventory(NEO-FFI-R).A path analysis was applied by analysis of moment structures(AMOS) version 7.0.Results The path analysis showed that childhood abuse was directly related to anxiety of college students(Sβ=0.123, P＜0.01 ＝ ,and was directly related to 4 dimensions of the NEO-FFI-R( exclusion Openness dimension) (Sβ= -0.216 ～ -0.248,0.309; P ＜ 0.01 ＝.3 dimensions of the NEO-FFI-R( exclusion Openness and Extraversion dimensions) were directly related to anxiety of college students ( Sβ = 0.525,-0.045 ～-0.052, P ＜ 0.05 ＝.Agreeableness, conscientiousness and neuroticism of NEO-FFI-R mediate the relationship between childhood abuse and anxiety of college students.The model fit indexes were x2/df = 0.546 ＜ 3.000, P = 0.460 ＞ 0.050, RMSEA = 0.001 ＜ 0.050, GFI = 1.000, AGFI = 0.998, NFI = 1.000, RFI = 0.998, IFI = 1.000,TLI = 1.002, CFI = 1.000.Conclusion Big five personality as mediated variable mediates the relationship between childhood abuse and anxiety of college students. Key words: Childhood abuse;  Big five personality;  Anxiety;  Path analysis;  College students