Personality hardiness expresses the characteristics that help to overcome stress and achieve well-being.

This study focused on the Hardiness as the important personality trait, which allow coping with stress and the relationship of empathy, emotional sensitivity and the personality hardiness.

88 healthy volunteers, students aged 17 to 26 years (mean age = 19, SD = 1,69), participated in this study. We used Cloninger’s Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), the Maddi Hardiness Survey (adapted by Leontyev), Buss Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ), the Barratt impulsiveness scale (BIS-11), Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), the Questionnaire Measure of Emotional Empathy (QMEE).

The cluster analysis was used to identify groups of hardy personalities. We demonstrated a negative relationship between hardiness and depression and burnout. It revealed significant differences between these groups by the following traits: Attention (BIS-11), Self-Control (BIS-11), Cognitive Complexity (BIS-11), Hostility (BPAQ), Exploratory activity (NS1 TCI), Shyness of strangers (HA3 TCI), Resourcefulness (S3 TCI). Regression analysis was used to identify Hardiness factors and to build the following regression models. For the first group the models describe 100% of dispersion (R-square=1,000, Durbin-Watson statistic = 1,419) and are:

Control = -16,998 - 2,922*С2 + 3,549*С5 + 3,264*CI + 0,723*ST2 + 0,747*S4 - 0,306*SC + 0,166*RD3 - 0,020*C — 0,003*NS2, where C2 – scale Empathy (TCI), C5 – scale Principles (TCI), CI – cognitive instability, ST2 – Transpersonal identification scale (TCI), S4 – Self-acceptance (TCI), SC – Self-Control (BIS-11), RD3 – Social attachment (TCI), C – Cooperativeness (TCI), NS2 – Impulsive decision making (TCI).

The Hardiness model described 50% (R-square=0,456) of dispersion:

Hardiness = 63,527 – 4,080*C2, where C2 –Empathy scale (TCI) (p=0,003).

The regression models of the second group explain 50% of group dispersion (R-square=0,512) and are Independent variables significance p<0,05:

Challenge = 12,484 + 0,389*SC + 0,197*EE — 0,702*RD1 — 0,206*A,where SC- Self-Control scale (BIS-11), EE – Emotional Empathy (Personality test of Emotional Empathy), RD1 – Sentimentality scale (TCI), A – Anger (BPAQ).

The Hardiness model describes 35% of dispersion (R-square=0,364, Durbin-Watson statistic = 2,066):

Hardiness = 100,352 + 0,941*SC — 0,527*H, where SC – Self-Control scale (BIS-11) (p=0,009), H – Hostility scale (BPAQ) (p=0,021).

Thus, the attention and self-control problems, hostility, cognitive complexity and shyness have a negative impact on hardiness.Our results suggest that the excessive use of empathy leads to decrease of ability to control situation and cope with the stress.

None Declared