“In the Company of Oneself” Personality, Anxiety and Self-Concept Clarity in Positive Solitude in young adults aged 18-25 years

Abstract

The present study aims to study the correlations and understand the relationships between personality traits, anxiety, positive solitude and self-concept clarity in the population of young adults from age 18-25 years. This age group was picked up for exploring the relations because most of the previous studies worked with teenagers or children, with very limited support about these constructs in young/emerging adults. The study tries to understand and explore that how various Personality traits affect the preference for positive solitude by a person, PS being the “Ability to experience positive emotions, peace, meaning, and restoration from time spent alone, when that solitude is voluntarily chosen.” – Palgi et.al (2021). A cross-sectional correlational research design was used for the sample of 100 people, where the ratio of males and females was kept almost equal. The assessments were done using the standardized and scientific scales like BFI (for personality testing), HAM-A (for anxiety), the PS scale (for Positive Solitude), and SCC scale (for self-concept clarity). The results found that there was a significant positive relationship between Positive Solitude and personality traits like Openness, Conscientiousness, and negative relations with neuroticism. Agreeableness, and extraversion showed a significant correlation but almost negligible. Positive Solitude was negatively correlated with anxiety stating that people who enjoyed alone time more, were less prone to anxiety. Furthermore, Openness and Conscientiousness came out to be the most significant predictors of Positive Solitude in the regression analysis. For SCC, it showed positive significant relationship with personality traits except neuroticism, and a negative relationship with anxiety, telling that people who have a better understanding of their own beliefs, experience lesser anxiety. It clearly showed a strong positive relation with Positive Solitude, confidently stating that alone time, if used in a recreational way or fruitful manner, can help a person build better understanding about self and contribute to identity formation also. All in all, the study concluded that Solitude, as often confused with Aloneness or Loneliness, if used positively can help person gain peace, meaning in life, emotional regulation, develop interests and get a better understanding about one’s identity. This proves that Positive solitude is a beneficial construct worthy of further studies, also seen to reduce anxiety in general, in young adults.