Personality traits and family functioning: insights from middle-aged adults in Iran

INTRODUCTION: The relationship between personality traits and family functioning represents a complex interaction that significantly influences individual development and psychological outcomes. This cross-sectional analysis examines how the Big Five personality traits relate to multiple domains of family functioning in a middle-aged Iranian general population. METHODS: Data were drawn from 764 middle-aged adults in Isfahan, Iran. Family functioning was assessed with the Persian McMaster Family Assessment Device (FAD), and personality traits were measured using the Persian NEO Five-Factor Inventory. The mean scores of personality traits were compared between individuals with healthy and unhealthy family functioning. Bivariate correlation analyses and both unadjusted and adjusted binary logistic regression models evaluated the associations between each trait and family functioning across seven domains. RESULTS: Participants had a mean age of approximately 39 years (SD = 5.5) and an average marital duration of around 16 years (SD = 5.3). Based on the comparative analysis of personality traits across healthy and unhealthy family functioning dimensions, significant differences were observed in most traits. Individuals from unhealthy families demonstrated significantly higher neuroticism and significantly lower extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness across all family functioning areas (p < 0.001). In contrast, openness did not show a consistent or strong pattern of difference, with most comparisons being statistically non-significant. In both unadjusted and adjusted regression models, higher neuroticism increased odds of unhealthy family functioning (OR > 1, p < 0.05), whereas higher extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness reduced those odds (OR < 1, p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: These findings underscore neuroticism as a risk factor and extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness as protective factors for unhealthy family functioning. Integrating personality-based approaches particularly targeting maladaptive neuroticism into family counseling and psychological interventions may foster healthier relationships among middle-aged adults.