Differences in personality and character traits of occupational therapy researchers and non-researchers: A cross-sectional study

IF 1.6 4区医学 Q2 REHABILITATION

Australian Occupational Therapy Journal Pub Date : 2025-04-10 DOI:10.1111/1440-1630.70015

Clara Leong, Kristie J. Harper, Shuang Shuang Han, Leyla Osborne, Georgia Alcock, Susan L. Taylor

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Introduction

Despite a high level of interest in research, many occupational therapists are not engaged in research activities. Understanding how occupational therapists' personality and character traits influence research engagement is crucial to designing effective research capacity building strategies. This study aimed to identify and compare personality and character traits of occupational therapy researchers and non-researchers across Australia.

Methods

An exploratory cross-sectional study was conducted using modified versions of the Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, eXtraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience Personality Inventory-Revised-60 (HEXACO-PI-R-60) and the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths-72 (VIA-IS-72) questionnaires. Differences in personality and character traits between researchers and non-researchers and correlations with research engagement were explored. Factor analysis was used to test the psychometric properties of the modified questionnaires.

Results

Forty-seven researchers and 78 non-researchers participated in the online survey. There were significant differences between groups for traits of love of learning (P = 0.01), curiosity (P = 0.03), and creativity (P = 0.02). These traits were significantly associated with research engagement. Participants in the non-researcher group scored higher for traits of perfectionism and organisation; however, the results were not statistically significant. Factor analysis demonstrated that the modified personality questionnaires achieved similar psychometric properties and factor matrixes compared to the original versions.

Conclusion

Occupational therapists' research engagement is influenced by their personality and character traits, specifically love of learning, curiosity, and creativity. It is, therefore, imperative to consider intrinsic values when developing future research capacity building strategies to increase research engagement and support professional practice.

Consumer and Community Involvement

Clinicians were involved in the development stage with five clinicians providing feedback on the survey tool.

PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY

Research is like being a detective. You start with something you want to learn more about, or a problem you want to solve, like a mystery. Researchers uncover new knowledge through gathering clues, people's opinions, and other types of information. They put it all together to find answers. Clinical research can help health professionals, like occupational therapists, find answers to understand the types of treatments that will help their clients the most. The issue is, many occupational therapists do not know how to do research and often do not do it. In our study, we wanted to understand why this is. We found out that if an occupational therapist has a love of learning, curiosity, and creativity, they are more likely to be interested in doing research. We plan to use our findings to develop research strategies that can help occupational therapists undertake more research, because research and new knowledge helps the therapist, their workplace and their clients. In the future, we aim to design research activities that engage therapists' love of learning, curiosity, and creativity. Because after all, a little bit of detective work done collaboratively can go a long way to improving care and the wider health-care system.

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来源期刊

Australian Occupational Therapy Journal 医学-康复医学

CiteScore

2.80

自引率

16.70%

发文量

审稿时长

6-12 weeks

期刊介绍： The Australian Occupational Therapy Journal is a leading international peer reviewed publication presenting influential, high quality innovative scholarship and research relevant to occupational therapy. The aim of the journal is to be a leader in the dissemination of scholarship and evidence to substantiate, influence and shape policy and occupational therapy practice locally and globally. The journal publishes empirical studies, theoretical papers, and reviews. Preference will be given to manuscripts that have a sound theoretical basis, methodological rigour with sufficient scope and scale to make important new contributions to the occupational therapy body of knowledge. AOTJ does not publish protocols for any study design The journal will consider multidisciplinary or interprofessional studies that include occupational therapy, occupational therapists or occupational therapy students, so long as ‘key points’ highlight the specific implications for occupational therapy, occupational therapists and/or occupational therapy students and/or consumers.