Exploring the associations between the Morningness-Eveningness-Stability-Scale improved (MESSi) and the higher-order personality factors

ABSTRACT

Morningness-eveningness refers to individual differences in the sleep-wake cycle. Research indicates that morningness-eveningness is associated with the Big Five (neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, conscientiousness) and the Big Two (alpha-stability, beta-plasticity) personality factors. However, the latter has not yet been tested within the multidimensional approach to morningness-eveningness. In the present study, we have adapted the Morningness-Eveningness-Stability-Scale improved (MESSi) to Polish (https://osf.io/rcxb5) to explore the associations between its subscales (morning affect, eveningness, distinctness) and the Big Two personality traits in a sample of 1106 participants (559 women and 547 men) aged 18 to 55 (M = 36.26, SD = 9.90). In bivariate correlations, morning affect was positively related to alpha-stability and beta-plasticity, distinctness was correlated negatively with alpha-stability and beta-plasticity, while eveningness was positively correlated only with beta-plasticity. Furthermore, the confirmatory factor analysis supported the original three-factor structure of the Polish version of MESSi, while the associations with affect and the symptoms of depression and anxiety attested to its validity. Overall, the present study provides the first evidence for the associations between MESSi subscales and the Big Two personality traits, as well as shows a good fit of the three-factor structure of MESSi in the Polish population.

KEYWORDS:

• Morning affect
• eveningness
• distinctness
• MESSi
• alpha-stability
• beta-plasticity
• confirmatory factor analysis
• Polish adaptation

Author contributions

Joanna Gorgol: conceptualisation, methodology, funding acquisition, investigation, formal analysis, writing – original draft, writing – review and editing.

Wojciech Waleriańczyk: conceptualisation, methodology, investigation, formal analysis, writing – review and editing.

Christoph Randler: writing – review and editing, supervision.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the This work was supported by the Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, from the funds awarded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in the form of a subsidy for the maintenance and development of research potential in 2023 [501-D125-01-1250000 zlec. 5011000194].