Personality traits and loneliness: An ecological momentary assessment study with self and partner ratings

This multi-method and multi-rater study examined the association between personality and loneliness. Participants (n=297) completed baseline self-rated and partner-rated personality traits; baseline self-rated loneliness; self-rated momentary loneliness (6444 assessments) and partner-rated daily loneliness (2139 assessments). Baseline correlations indicated that higher self and partner-rated neuroticism and lower extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness were related to higher loneliness. In multilevel modeling, self and partner-rated neuroticism and conscientiousness were generally associated with self-rated momentary loneliness and daily partner-rated loneliness, but extraversion and agreeableness had inconsistent associations. Similarly, interpersonal warmth and sociability facets were associated with dispositional loneliness but were mostly unrelated to momentary loneliness. Findings suggest that neuroticism and emotion-related facets are more relevant to momentary loneliness than sociability and other interpersonal traits.