Personality traits are associated with spiritual intelligence in medical and dental students: A study in a medical sciences university in Iran

Abstract

Background: Describing the personality traits of medical health students is an essential for understanding their motivation and learning styles and can help plan theoretical and clinical training in this field. Given the dearth of research in this area, the present study was conducted to examine and describe personality traits and spiritual intelligence in medical sciences students and to determine the relationship between these two variables. Methods: This descriptive, analytical, cross-sectional study was conducted with 240 medical and dental students at Babol University of Medical Sciences selected through simple random sampling. The students completed a demographic questionnaire, the NEO Five-Factor Inventory and the Integrated Spiritual Intelligence Scale developed by Amram and Dryer. Results: The spiritual intelligence score was higher among dental students than medical students (220.12 ± 78.63 vs. 191.08 ± 65.79) and was higher among women than men (229.27 ± 83.25 vs. 191.89 ± 78.63). The results of the multivariate regression analysis revealed extraversion (β = 0.330) was positively associated with spiritual intelligence. Openness to experience (β = −0.581), agreeableness (β = −0.433), and conscientiousness (β = −0.415) were negatively associated with spiritual intelligence. However, neuroticism was not associated with spiritual intelligence. Conclusions: Some personality traits were associated with spiritual intelligence in Iranian medical and dental students. These findings suggest that improving the spiritual intelligence of medical and dental students requires further attention to personality traits in this group of students.