Psychological Distress as a Pathway Linking Personality Traits to Episodic Memory in Older Adults

Previous research has suggested that the Big Five personality traits are associated with both episodic memory and psychological distress. Moreover, psychological distress has been linked with poorer episodic memory performance. However, it remains unclear whether psychological distress may account for the association between personality traits and episodic memory in older adults. Three multiple regression analyses and two mediation analyses were conducted on data from 10,761 older adults from Understanding Society: the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS), with a mean age of 66.74 (SD = 8.39) years, of whom 45.67% were male. Results revealed that Neuroticism and Agreeableness were negatively associated with episodic memory performance, whereas Openness was positively associated with episodic memory performance. Moreover, Neuroticism had a positive association with psychological distress, whereas Openness, Conscientiousness, and Extraversion were negatively associated with psychological distress. Finally, there was a negative association between psychological distress and episodic memory performance. The mediation analyses indicated an inconsistent mediation pattern involving psychological distress in the association between Neuroticism and episodic memory, whereas psychological distress partially mediated the association between Openness and episodic memory.