Financial well-being and personality

Abstract

The data were collected as part of an online panel study in Estonia in April 2024 by the survey agency Norstat. The questionnaire was programmed in LimeSurvey and consisted of three sections. The first section included socio-demographic indicators, comprised of age, gender, education, and area of residence. Age was grouped into 5-year blocks except for the 18-19 age group. The area of residence was categorised based on indicators from the Estonian Department of Statistics. The second section of the questionnaire consisted of questions related to personality. The 20 statements validated in the Estonian National Mental Health Study (Laidra et al., 2023) are part of a more extensive personality questionnaire that was previously used in personality research. This questionnaire was developed to investigate the links between personality traits and genetics (Arumäe et al., 2025). The third section contained nine items measuring the three dimensions of FWB The final part of the questionnaire included questions about the respondents’ occupation and satisfaction with their current monetary situation (income). The study was also preregistered in the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/t9j5s) environment. The sample consists of 1007 adults aged 18-74. The participants could complete the questionnaire in either Estonian or Russian. The sample was formed according to quotas for different socio-demographic indicators that were created in line with Estonian population statistics. This approach was chosen to create a sample that closely matches the Estonian adult resident population in terms of key demographic characteristics.