There is strong evidence that neuroticism is robustly correlated with many Axis I and II mental disorders from childhood through adulthood (Clark, Watson, & Mineka, 1994; Khan, Jacobson, Gardner, Prescott, & Kendler, 2005; Krueger & Markon, 2001; Sher & Trull, 1994; Watson et al., 1994). A meta-analysis of associations between neuroticism and diagnoses of Axis I mental disorders was conducted based on 33 population-based samples (Malouff et al., 2005). Table 1 presents effect sizes for the strength of association with the mental disorder, expressed as d (Cohen, 1988). A value of d = .50 would indicate that persons who met criteria for each mental disorder had neuroticism scores that were one-half a standard deviation higher on average than persons who did not meet criteria for the disorder. A value of d = 1.0 would indicate a one standard deviation difference. Conventionally, effect sizes of d > .50 are considered to be “medium” and effect sizes of d > .80 be considered to be “large” (Cohen, 1998). The meta-analysis (Malouff et al., 2005) revealed that the magnitudes of association between neuroticism
