Abstract:
Personality traits comprise of behavior patterns that reveal the individual’s character
and expose their abilities. An individual’s reaction to any given situation is dictated by their
personality. Personality could however be compromised by lack of stress resilience. Stress is
physio-mental anguish resulting from prolonged frustration and sensed defeat. Resilience
rejuvenates, alleviates anguishes and restores normalcy. The purpose of this study was to
examine the relationship between Neuroticism personality trait and stress resilience among
teacher counsellors in secondary schools within Kakamega County, Kenya. The study was
guided by the General Adaptation Syndrome theory of stress management and Seligman’s 3P’s
theory of resilience. The correlational survey design was used. The target population was 327
teacher counsellors in sub county secondary schools in Kakamega County Kenya. The sample
size of 181 teacher counsellors who were the participants was selected through purposeful
sampling; stratified random sampling and simple random sampling. Data collection was done
using questionnaires adopted from the Big Five Inventory (BFI) tool which has a published
reliability coefficient of 0.8, and the Ego-Resiliency Scale (ER89) that has a published reliability
coefficient of 0.7. A pilot study was done in neighboring Bungoma County. Content validity and
expert opinion from psychology department Laikipia University Kenya was used to verify the
validity of the instruments. Data was presented in frequency tables, graphs and charts and was
analyzed using Pearson’s correlation. The findings indicated that Neuroticism personality trait
was negatively correlated to stress resilience at a coefficiency of 0.3678. Consequently, the
hypothesis was rejected at the significant level of .05. Results showed strong relationship
between neuroticism and stress resilience. It was concluded that Neuroticism had characteristics
that empowered individuals to be single-minded and self-motivated. These empowering
characteristics were found to be hidden in the repercussions of the neurotics’ supportive traits.
They caused the neurotic teacher counsellors to embrace their responsibilities with enthusiasm
and competence. The study recommends that the teacher counsellors must understand their
personality traits and know how personality influences the advancement of resilience.
Neuroticism personality trait will improve the teacher counsellors’ competence.
