The Role of Personality in the Mental and Physical Health of World Trade Center Responders: Self-Reports Versus Informant-Reports

Personality is linked to important health outcomes, but most prior studies have relied on self-reports, making it possible that shared-method variance explains the associations. In the present study, we examined self-reports versus informant-reports of personality and multimethod outcomes. World Trade Center (WTC) responders and informants, 283 pairs, completed five-factor model personality measures and multimethod assessments of stressful events, functioning, mental disorders, 9/11-related treatment costs, body mass index (BMI), and daily activity across 3 years. Self-reports were uniquely related to stressful events and functioning. Both self-reports and informant-reports showed incremental validity over one another for mental disorder diagnoses and treatment costs. For objective outcomes daily activity and BMI, informant-reports showed incremental validity over self-reports, accounting for all self-report variance and more. The findings suggest that informant-reports of personality provide better validity for objective health outcomes, which has implications for understanding personality and its role in mental and physical health.