Author(s)

Kayo Shichiri¹, Akira Tachibana¹, Hiroko Abe², Takuro Kunizuka², Yuri Yoshida², Chikako Tomiyama³, Mayumi Watanabe⁴

¹Health Administration Center, Headquarters for Health Administration and Environmental Safety, Niigata University, Niigata, Japan.
²Department of Psychiatry, Niigata University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Niigata, Japan.
³Department of Medical Technology, Graduate School of Health Sciences, Niigata University, Niigata, Japan.
⁴Chuo University, Tokyo, Japan.

Introduction: With the arrival of the 21^st century, drastic worldwide changes to natural, economic and social events have occurred. These include the Great East Japan Earthquake, and the global financial crisis. Furthermore, Japan experienced the introduction of a specific education system. In this study, we traced and compared the psychological characters of university freshmen for 16 years (years 2000-2016) using Big-Five personalities inventory (Japanese version). Methods: A total of 1189 physically and mentally healthy university freshmen participated in this study. They were divided into four groups according to the year they entered university. They completed a self-filled questionnaire, Big-Five personalities inventory, which consists of Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Conscientiousness and Openness. Result and Discussion: Compared with the year 2008, Extraversion nominally increased in 2012, however, it statistically significantly decreased in 2016. Agreeableness notably decreased from 2000 to 2008, then showed an increase in 2012. Compared to 2000, Neuroticism was statistically significantly lower in 2008 and 2016. Such statistically significant differences were not observed in the other two personalities. The personalities of university freshmen have changed in the last 16 years, which may be been caused by drastic changes. However, further research (e.g., larger-scale studies or studies including other university students) is required to support the current findings.

Characteristic Changes, Big-Five Personalities, University Freshmen, Natural/Social/Economic Circumstances, Japanese University Students

Shichiri, K. , Tachibana, A. , Abe, H. , Kunizuka, T. , Yoshida, Y. , Tomiyama, C. and Watanabe, M. (2017) Characteristic Changes Defined via Comparison of the Big-Five Personalities in Japanese University Freshmen from Years 2000 to 2016. Health, 9, 1348-1354. doi: 10.4236/health.2017.910098.