After the Pandemic: Do Personality Traits Affect Students' Behaviour Toward Following the Instructions for Prevention of COVID-19?

In their lives, individuals face many disasters and events that involve many sources of anxiety, risk factors, and threats in all areas of life. The effects of these stressful situations may be reflected in most aspects of the individual's personality. To achieve a good level of safety and mental health, the individual needs to deal with these disasters in ways that are commensurate with the instructions for dealing with such disasters issued by global and local health organisations. It is assumed that the extent of adherence to instructions during disasters is affected by this personality trait. This study aimed to verify the predictive ability of the personality traits to deal with the instructions for commitment to dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic among university students in Jordan. It also aimed to find out the differences in adherence to instructions according to gender. The study sample consisted of 366 Jordanian university students who were randomly selected, and the descriptive approach were applied. The results indicated that there were no statistically significant differences due to gender in adherence to the instructions for dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. The results also indicated that personality traits (agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness, and extroversion) predict the extent of adherence to the instructions announced by the Ministry of Health in Jordan, and the most predictive personality type was conscientiousness, while neuroticism did not significantly predict adherence to instructions.