Personality, Intelligence, and Somatic and Mental Health Disturbances in a Time of Societal Change

The article investigates the connections between personality and intelligence and somatic and mental (externalizing) health disturbances in a sample of 752 Russian adults, who participated in the study during the societal turmoil of the 1990s. Given the degree of societal instability during that period, and the heightened rates of health problems, crime, and alcohol abuse, we hypothesized that the predictive links between personality and intelligence would be mediated by the perceived impact of the societal change and moderated by demographic variables such as gender, education, marital status, and age. The pattern of results differs for various outcome variables, but, in general, the results confirm, although only partially, the presence of both mediation and moderation by other variables in considering the connections between personality, intelligence, and somatic and mental health outcomes.