To Örebro University

BACKGROUND: The relationship between conscientiousness, mental health and mental illness has been an issue for the last two decades.

AIMS: By using a dual model of mental health, the present study examined a non-linear relationship between conscientiousness and healthy or non-healthy symptoms in two different cultures.

METHOD: Participants in this study were 296 Iranian and 310 Swedish university students (18-24 years of age). We used two different conscientiousness scales; the 12-item conscientiousness subscale of the NEO/FFI as an imported (etic) scale, and a 10-item Iranian conscientiousness scale as an indigenous (emic) and culture-dependent scale.

RESULTS: In both conscientiousness scales, multivariate analysis of variance showed that conscientiousness differentiated among four mental health groups (languishing, troubled, symptomatic and flourishing), although languishing and troubled individuals were less conscientious than flourishing and symptomatic individuals. Furthermore, the non-healthy symptomatic individuals were more conscientiousness than flourishing individuals. The results showed no significant differences between the two cultures in terms of the four mental health categories.

CONCLUSIONS: It was concluded that the relationship between conscientiousness and mental health/mental illness is more a non-linear relationship than a linear one.