The HEXACO model of personality is associated with loneliness in a university setting

The problem of loneliness among college students has attracted extensive attention from researchers. As a fundamental psychological framework, personality traits are associated with loneliness. Thus, we conducted a survey of 688 college students in Mainland China to examine the relationship between the HEXACO personality traits and loneliness. Regression analysis revealed a negative association between loneliness and the personality traits of agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience, and a positive association between loneliness and the personality traits of honesty–humility, emotionality, and extraversion. This model explained 33.78% of the variance in loneliness. Implications of the findings are discussed.