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Survey study, 2025

Do personality traits and emotion control affect PMS?

Women with lower self-directedness and cooperativeness, and higher harm avoidance, tend to have PMS. Difficulty controlling emotions partly explains this link.

Early or limited evidence 300 female university students in Iran, 271 with PMS

What they did

Cross-sectional study of 300 female university students in Iran, of which 271 had PMS. Researchers used questionnaires to measure PMS, personality traits, and difficulty regulating emotions. They analyzed relationships using path analysis.

What they found

Lower self-directedness and cooperativeness had a significant negative indirect effect on PMS (mediated by emotion regulation difficulty). Higher harm avoidance had a significant positive indirect effect on PMS. Difficulty regulating emotions was the mechanism linking personality to PMS.

What it means for you

Certain personality traits and struggle with emotions are connected to PMS. Helping women regulate emotions might help reduce PMS. The study was in one Iranian university, so results may not apply to all women. Most participants had PMS, so no clear comparison group exists.

300

Female university students enrolled

271

Had premenstrual syndrome

About the study

Original title
The Relationship between Premenstrual Syndrome and Temperament and Character Dimensions: The Mediating Role of Difficulty in Emotion Regulation
Authors
Farima Hosseini, Mohammad Narimani, Sajjad Basharpoor
Journal
Journal of Midwifery and Health Sciences
Year
2025
Study design
Survey study
Participants
300
What was tested
None (observational study)
Open access
Yes

Topics