The Big-Five personality factors, mental health, and social-demographic indicators as independent predictors of gratification delay

Abstract

This paper reports on a study testing over 12,000 adults. We were interested in the correlates of gratification delay (GD) (as criterion variable) with gender, age, education and occupation, the Big-Five personality factors, and mental health (as predictor variables). Correlations and regressions showed that all the Big-Five personality factors, mental health, and a set of socio-demographic variables were significant and independent predictors of GD, accounting for 19% of the total variance of the outcome variable. As predicted, Conscientiousness was the strongest correlate. The implications of these findings are discussed along with the limitations of this research.