Associations between personality, sports participation and athletic success. A comparison of Big Five in sporting and non-sporting adults

Abstract The present study investigates whether the Big Five personality traits are different among diverse sports populations. A sample of 881 male athletes and non-athletes completed a self-report questionnaire measuring their personality traits. The Exploratory Structure Equation Modeling (ESEM) approach is adopted to test measurement invariance and mean differences among groups. The results indicate that athletes who had experienced the most success in their sport scored higher than non-athletes in each personality dimension of the Big Five, with the exception of openness, while less successful athletes scored higher than non-athletes only in extraversion and agreeableness. The more suc…