Childhood Negative Experiences and Personality Traits among Port-Said University Students

Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have a negative effect on adolescent personality traits and are linked to poorer physical and mental health. The present study aim to investigate the relation between childhood negative experiences and personality traits among Port Said university students. Subjects and Methods: Design: A descriptive correlation design was utilized. Setting: The study was carried out across all 13 faculties at Port Said University. Subjects : A purposive sample of 716 students from all faculties was included in the study. Tools: Two tools were used for data collection: (1) questionnaire sheet to assess negative childhood experiences, (2) The Big Five Inventory to measure the Big Five dimensions of personality traits (Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism and Openness) in addition to personal characteristics of the studied sample. The Results : there were statistically significant negative correlation between total score of childhood negative experiences and extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness personality. While, there was a statistically significant positive correlation between total score of childhood negative experiences and neuroticism personality. Conclusion : It can be concluded that, near to a half of the studied sample had average negative childhood experiences and approximately a half of the studied sample had a neuroticism personality traits. Recommendations : The study recommended that, designing and implementing an intervention program include parenting education to teach coping strategies to change maladaptive pathways to avoid negative childhood experiences which affect negatively on the personality traits.


INTRODUCTION
Adolescence is the transitional phase of growth and development between childhood and adulthood.According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an adolescent is a person between the ages of 10 and 19 years.Students of all ages who are enrolled in a college or university for a specific course are referred to as college students (Beasley, 2022).Numerous reviews and meta-analyses have established the significance of personality factors to college students' academic achievement.While other personality qualities are less influenced, conscientiousness is particularly strongly connected with performance (Andersen, Gensowski, Ludeke, & John, 2020).Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have a detrimental impact on adolescent personality traits and are linked to deterioration and poorer mental health status (Grigsby et al., 2020).
A series of traumatic experiences that occur before the age of 18 are known as adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and they have been linked to a variety of lifelimiting physical and mental health disorders in adulthood.Studies have repeatedly demonstrated that it can predict state (Asmussen, Fischer, Drayton, & McBride, 2020) Poor and stressful childhoods increase a child's likelihood of developing harmful adolescent behaviors, which can ultimately result in mental diseases and physical ailments including cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.(Kosti et al., 2019).Li, Lv, Li, Luo, Sun, and Xu (2020) mentioned that personality traits have been defined as dimensions of individual differences in propensity to exhibit consistent patterns of thoughts, feelings, and situations.According to Gupta and Parimal (2020), the Big 5 personality qualities are extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness (trustworthiness), emotional stability (neuroticism), and culture, intellect, or openness.
The five-factor model (FFM) is being used as the dimensional framework in an increasing number of studies that examine how ACE affects personality (Reyes et al., 2018).
Assessment, education, psychotherapy, and medication management are all parts of the psychiatric health nurse's involvement in decreasing negative childhood experiences (McAnally, 2019).The greatest effect on minimizing the negative impact of childhood on families and communities may come from interventions that concentrate on primary ACE prevention (Esden, 2018).By recognizing the risk factors for child maltreatment, such as single motherhood, a young maternal age, the presence of non-biological caregivers, and socioeconomic family issues like poor income and welfare dependence it is possible to detect ACE early (Maguire-Jack, Font, Dillard, Dvalishvili, & Barnhart, 2021).

Significance of the study
Every day, millions of adolescents worldwide, from all socioeconomic background, all ages, all religions, and all cultures, endure violent childhood experiences and abuse.The frequency of negative childhood experience was 43%, as children between the ages of 1 and 14 were subjected to disciplinary violence, according to the Egyptian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS) (Ministry of Health and Population, 2018).
Traumatic experiences during childhood can therefore affect stress sensitivity and reactivity, as well as the growth of personality traits, increasing the risk of encountering life events.The relationship between adverse childhood events and personality traits in Port Said College students is thus clarified by this study.

AIM OF THE STUDY
The study aim was to investigate the relation between childhood negative experiences and personality traits among Port Said university students.

A. Technical design
This design includes a description of the research design, setting, subjects, and tools of data collection.

Research design
A descriptive correlational research design was utilized in this study.

Study setting
The present study was carried out in all thirteen faculties in Port Said University; faculties categorize into human sciences (commerce, physical education, kindergarten, law, arts, education and specific education), mathematical sciences (engineering, Port Said Scientific Journal of Nursing Vol.10, No.4, December 2023 4 information technology and computer sciences) and healthy sciences (medicine, pharmacy, science and nursing).

Subjects
The study used a purposive sample consisting of (716) adolescent students from both sexes who were enrolled in the participating faculties and qualified to be included in the study sample.

Sample size
This equation was used to calculate the sample size: (Dobson, 2002) Where; n = sample size.Za = the value of standard normal distribution for type I error probability for the sided test and equals 1.96.p = the prevalence rate of childhood negative experiences = 43% q = 1-p d2 = is the width of desired sample confidence level =0.099 d2 = .000980So, according to the calculation the sample size = 651subjects.The calculated Sample size is, due to the expected dropout rate (10%); the final sample size will be 716 students.
 All faculties of Port-Said University were included in the study from each faculty, an identified number of students was included in the study.
 Number of the students from each faculty was determined according to the following equation (Hamaza, 2017).


Total number of students in the faculty X Total sample size Total number of all facilities students So: Number of the students from each faculty as the following:

Tools for data collection
Two data collection instruments were used:

Tool I: Childhood Negative Experience Scale:
This scale was developed in English by Watson (1934) and translated into Arabic by Ghaly (1964) and valid to assess negative childhood experiences.This scale consists of his 32 items on his 4-point Likert scale of negative childhood experiences.Scores always range from a '4' (always) to '1' (not able to remember.Total scores range from 1 to 128.Negative childhood experiences were categorized as: • Non negative childhood experience (1to 57).
A structured personal sheet developed in Arabic form by the researchers to assess personal characteristics.Includes socio-demographic data (age, gender, faculty name, residence, grade, working status of their parents and income).

B-Operational design
The study field of work was carried out through the following phases:

Preparation phase
The theoretical knowledge of numerous study topics is reviewed in this phase through literature reviews, books, articles, online journals, and publications that are largely focused on adverse childhood experiences and personality traits.

Tool reliability
Tools were tested for reliability using Cronbach's Alpha, the internal consistency of Tool(I) was satisfactory as (Cronbach's alpha= 0.83).Additionally, tool (II) big five personality traits: The scale has an acceptable and satisfactory internal consistency for five dimension of personality traits (Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness subscales respectively (Cronbach's alpha = 0.83, 0.82, 0.80, 0.82, 0.92)

Pilot study
A pilot study was conducted before the actual data collection began.The pilot study was conducted from 1 December, 2020 to 30 December 2020 with a 10% overall sample of adolescent students.The study was conducted with 71 faculty students at Port Said University, but these students were excluded from the overall study sample to ensure stability of responses.

Field work
In each faculty, researchers visited the dean's office, introduced themselves, and explained the purpose of their research and the sampling methods used.The dean then introduced the researchers to the "coordinator", the lecturer in charge of each academic year.
• Students gave verbal informed consent and were told they had the right to refuse to participate in the study.
• Researchers interviewed agreeable students in a form of groups each group consists of 5 student.Each interview lasted about 30-45 minutes, depending on the interviewee's response with maximum 20 student at the end of day.
• The researcher began collecting data from her three times a week, and the data collection process lasted from 20 February 2021 to 20 May 2021, for 4 months.

C-Administrative design
The nursing dean wrote an official letter to all the deans at Port Said University explaining the study's objectives and requesting their cooperation and approval to carry it out.

Ethical considerations
The study plan was accepted by the Port Said University faculty of Nursing Research Ethics Committee with number(19) in 9/7/2020.The ethical guidelines for research were all followed.The students' verbal consent was gained after the research's procedures and objectives were explained to them, assuring them that their privacy would be maintained and that the information collected would be used only for research purposes.Students were made aware that they had the option to join or not in the study and that they might do so at any time without facing any repercussions.The participants suffered no real or prospective harm as a result of this study manipulation.

D. Statistical design
Using SPSS software version (24), data were collected, arranged, tabulated, and statistically analyzed.For qualitative and quantitative variables, respectively, the mean and standard deviation of the data were reported using descriptive statistics.The chisquare test was utilized to compare qualitative category variables.Crosstabs over 2x2 could not apply the test if 10% or more of the cells in the table have an expected value of less than 5 in one or more of the cells.The interrelationships between the collection of variables were evaluated using a person correlation analysis.At a P value of 0.05, statistical significance was considered.

RESULTS
Table 1 shows that, more than a half of the studied students (57.1%) were females 73.5% of them their age group were from 18 to 20 with mean 19.73± 1.25 years.In other way, approximately three quarters (70.4%) faculty student were lived in urban, as well as table indicates that, near to half (43.9%) total students were from faculties human science especially faculty commerce which represent 32.1% total students.
The table also clears that, a half of the studied students (52%) their mother's had secondary education, It is also observed that more than two thirds of the studied sample (68.9%) their mother's occupation were a house wife.While 49.4% of the studied students' fathers had secondary education, a most of them (98.2%) were working.As well as, more than two thirds of them (46.6%)their family reported had enough income.

Figure (1)
shows that, negative childhood experiences among studied sample, about 22.6% of the studied sample reported that they had not exposed to negative childhood experiences, more than one third of them (38.6%) had mild negative childhood experiences.While, 43.0% of the studied sample their negative childhood experiences average.On other hand, only 5.7% of them exposed to severe negative childhood experiences.Table 2 shows that, 61.0% male students have a severe childhood negative experience and there was statistically significant relation as (P=0.029).It was founded that, 72.7% studied students who were lived in urban area had a mild childhood negative experience while.36.6% of them who lived in rural area had a severe childhood negative experience with no statistical relation.
Port Said Scientific Journal of Nursing Vol.10, No.4, December 2023 10 The table also clarifies that, 19.1% total faculty mathematical science not had childhood negative experience especially faculty engineering which represents 16.0% and there was statistically significant relation as (P=0.029).
The table also reflects that, more than three quarters (77.9%) faculties human sciences had average level childhood negative experiences 34.3% mainly from faculty commerce, as well as, majority of the studied sample (85.0%) had a severe level childhood negative experiences from faculties human sciences mainly from faculty commerce 39.0% and there was statistically significant relation as (P=0.006).
The table also indicates that, near to half (43.9%) studied sample their mother secondary level education had a severe level childhood negative experiences and there was statistically significant relation as (P=0.000).it was also founded that, about three quarters (73.1%) studied sample their mother was house wife occupation had average level childhood negative experiences statistically significant relation as (P=0.027).In same line, 61.0% studied sample their father secondary level education had a severe level childhood negative experiences and there was statistically significant relation as (P=0.000)Table 3 The table implies that, a comparison between faculties health science, mathematical science, human science childhood negative experiences result represents that, studied student from human science faculties had childhood negative experiences and statistically significant difference as (t=52.294)P≤0.01.Table 4 displays that, a comparison between health science, mathematical science, human science and personality traits and the result indicated that there were statistically significant difference between (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness , neuroticism and openness personality) and faculties of human science as (Mean=7.557)which consider higher than faculties of health science and mathematical science.
Port Said Scientific Journal of Nursing Vol.10, No.4, December 2023 11 Table 6 reveals that, there were statistically significant negative correlation between total score childhood negative experiences extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness openness personality as (r=-0.484,-0.636, -0.522, -0.504 respectively) as well as P<0.01.On another hand, table also clarifies that, there were a statistically significant positive correlation between total score childhood negative experiences neuroticism personality as (r=0.734) as P<0.01.2019).However, as the negative childhood experiences such as violent or negligent parenting have been linked to personality, it has been hypothesized that abuse may have a detrimental effect on the formation of personality.They discovered that people who had gone through traumatic childhood experiences and more demanding interpersonal situations in adulthood reported higher degrees of neuroticism, antisocial behavior, and tolerance for novel experiences (Wen, Ren, Li, Li, & Chen, 2022).The present study was carried out to investigate the relation between childhood negative experiences and personality traits among Port Said university students in order to highlight the consequences of the problem and draw attention for find appropriate solutions.The finding of present study generally indicates negative effect of childhood experiences on adolescent's personality traits.
According to the study's findings, on average, approximately fifty percent of the students surveyed reported negative childhood experiences.This finding is a little higher than that of Karatekin (2018), who discovered that a third of the students under investigation had gone through two or more traumatic experiences as children.Although Moses (2020) reported that more than three of studied adolescents had a negative childhood experiences, the present findings were lower than those of Afifi et al., This result's interpretation may be based on the fact that the study subjects were subjected to abuse as children and were exposed to numerous domestic disturbances within their homes.The fact that more than half of the students surveyed claimed their father was occasionally fiercely devoted and serious serves as evidence.This might be because it's generally accepted in society that raising kids in a disciplined, serious manner is the cornerstone of a good upbringing.Mueller and Carey (2023) back up this perspective.He stated that protective factors, which are the outcome of parents' efforts to shield their kids from outside threats, deviant behavior, and to boost their self-esteem, may be the cause of parental control.I described.Self-control is positively influenced by selfesteem.However, Lee and Han (2021) observed that parental attitudes can change depending on the child's age and psychosocial environment, particularly when the child is transitioning from kindergarten to school.Additionally, we observe that parents of schoolage children in Eastern cultures are particularly protective of them.The term "control parenting" is a parenting approach in which parents closely follow and keep tabs on their kids' behavior, keeping track of their whereabouts, what they're up to, and how well they're coping.
The present finding, regarding the personality characteristics of the survey sample showed that roughly 75 percent of the students were extroverted.This outcome is in line with that of Liang et al., who discovered that the majority of the adolescents they surveyed had extroverted personalities (Liang et al., 2022).This conclusion might be explained by the fact that most students come from urban areas, which tend to have a more extroverted population than rural ones.Support is given to Liang et al.'s interpretation.In a study conducted on adolescents' extroverted personalities, who found that urban adolescents had higher extroversion rates and scores than rural adolescents.
The findings also indicated that almost two-thirds of the survey participants had agreeableness personalities.According to one interpretation of the results, many of the students surveyed say they are more compassionate and unselfish towards others, are sociable with most people, and like teamwork.this finding supported by Kochanska and Kim (2020), who studied early childhood challenges and synchrony during adolescence, found that parental assertions of power persisted until kindergarten age and then increased as children's agreeableness, measured as Latent structure of adolescence.
According to the study's findings, conscientious personality traits were present in nearly three-quarters of the students surveyed.This might be because the students who participated in the survey had a tendency to plan and carry out their actions, to be proactive and dependable at work, and to endure until a task was finished.Kim, Dowdy, Furlong, and You (2019) mentioned that the majority of surveyed adolescents demonstrated conscientiousness personality traits and that conscientiousness was positively associated with adolescents' life satisfaction, which is consistent with the findings of earlier studies in this field.
More than half of the students exhibits neuroticism personality according to recent research findings.The findings of the study by Grusnick, Garacci, Eiler, Williams, and Egede, (2020), which discovered that around two-fifths of the students evaluated had a neurotic disposition, are broadly in agreement with this finding.These findings may be taken as indicating a close relationship between neuroticism and maladaptive and passive coping mechanisms, including self-blame, daydreaming, and avoidance.This is demonstrated by the fact that the majority of students who responded to the poll reported feeling melancholy, depressed, apprehensive, worried, or easily irritable.On the other side, low neuroticism is positively correlated with problem-focused coping mechanisms (Agbaria & Mokh, 2022).
This interpretation was supported by Grusnick et al. (2020) who showed that a population with a history of abuse or dysfunctional families and bad childhood experiences showed greater neuroticism.Because of this, it was crucial to include the presence of higher neuroticism and lower conscientiousness as a predictor of poor coping, increased stress with sickness, and depression.In line with the foregoing result, Grist and Caudle (2021) founded that, the neuroticism is positively related to negative childhood experiences, specifically, physical child abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect.
This interpretation was supported by Grusnick et al. (2020) showed that a population with a history of abuse and a dysfunctional family and a poor childhood experience is more neurotic.For this reason, it was important to include the presence of higher neuroticism and lower conscientiousness as predictors of reduced coping capacity, increased illness stress, and depression.Consistent with the above findings, Grist and Caudle (2021) found that neuroticism is positively associated with negative childhood experiences, particularly childhood physical abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect.
The present study had shown there were a statistically significant positive correlations between extraversion, agreeableness, and openness personality.The interpretation might be that extraversion, agreeableness, and openness personality traits were related to positive mental health while neuroticism related to negative mental health.
This interpretation is supported by Tian, Jiang, and Huebner (2019) who conducted study about the big two personality traits and adolescents' complete mental health indicated that adolescents' levels of neuroticism displayed a positive association with negative mental health and a negative association with positive mental health; while adolescents' levels of extraversion showed a negative relation to negative mental health and a positive relation to positive mental health.
According to the study's findings, there was a statistically significant negative correlation between the extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness personality qualities and the negative overall score of childhood events.Negative childhood events and anxious disposition showed a statistically significant positive association.One explanation was that students who had a difficult upbringing tended to show traits including anxiety, heightened sensitivity to stress, chronic low self-esteem, and insecurity in relationships with peers and family.
This analysis agrees with Bilewicz & Wojcik (2018).whoreported that a number of negative childhood experiences, such as: Children who are liable to experience emotional problems.Additionally, a study by Reyes et al. (2018) discovered a relation between negative childhood experiences and agreeable personality traits, meaning that emotional abuse decreases agreeableness and increases antagonism.The researchers learned that extroverts feel more happy things happening to them in their environment, according to a study by Tian et al. (2019).Teenagers who demonstrate high levels of extroversion may consequently have good parenting, which raises their levels of self-acceptance and general life happiness.
Last but not least, the current study demonstrated a strong correlation between high neuroticism scores and severe levels of adverse childhood events, demonstrating that neuroticism is the most prevalent and accurate predictor of experience.On the other side, high levels of agreeability, conscientiousness, openness, and extraversion are frequently linked to low levels of traumatic childhood events.This result supported by Kim et al. (2019) who conducted study in Korea about adolescents' personality traits and positive psychological orientations indicated that only neuroticism was directly associated with emotional distress (which considered as indicator for childhood negative experiences), and negatively associated with adolescent life satisfaction, also found all other personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness) were not significantly related to adolescents' emotional distress.Also, Grusnick et al. (2020) ; Afifi et al. (2020);Grist, and Caudle (2021) reported that negative childhood experiences were found to significantly impact on personality traits.They found significant associations between higher score of negative childhood experiences and neuroticism personality traits.

CONCLUSION
Based on the findings of the present study, it can be concluded that:  Near to half of the studied sample had average negative childhood experiences.
While, about three quarter of them had extroversion personality traits and two thirds of them had agreeableness personality traits, as well as, around three quarters studied students have a conscientiousness personality traits, and approximately a half studied sample had a neuroticism personality traits, while, approximately three quarter of them had closeness to experience personality traits.
 There was a statistically significant negative correlation between extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness with the total score for negative childhood experiences.While the total score of adverse childhood experiences and neurotic personality showed a statistically significant positive correlation.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the results of the present study, the following recommendations were suggested: 1. Creating and implementing educational workshops and programs for parents to provide coping mechanisms for negative childhood experiences.
2. Planning for conducting formal and informal support to change maladaptive pathways, and stressing health disparities, with a focus on enriching openness and agreeableness personality traits.
3. Additional research is required to design and implement educational training programs about adverse childhood experiences and their impact on children's personalities in the future for psychiatric nurses, school nurses, students in various educational settings, and their caregivers.

Figure ( 2 )
Figure (2) represents that, personality traits among studied sample, about three quarter of them (74.0%) had extraversion personality.While two thirds studied sample (60.3%) had agreeableness personality, around three quarters (70.8%) studied students have a conscientiousness personality.The figure also reveals that, approximately a half of the studied sample (47.8%) had a neuroticism personality, while.Approximately three quarter studied students (72.6%) had closeness to experience personality.
adolescent, of all ages, religions, and cultures, who experienced a negative childhood are regularly the victims of violence, exploitation, and abuse.All socioeconomic levels are represented among these young people (Duell & Steinberg,

Table 7
table also presents that, there were other predictor factor childhood negative experiences as a high score extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness openness commonly associated low level childhood negative experiences as (p= 0.001, 0.026, 0.045, 0.004 respectively).