Relationships among personality, locus of control, and economic confidence of Chinese migrant workers

For many years, China’s booming economy relied on a steady stream of workers migrating from rural communities to the industrialized urban manufacturing hubs. However, after the 2008 global financial crisis, more were returning to their rural villages within 3 years. We explored associations between economic confidence, the Big Five personality traits, and locus of control among 750 Chinese migrant workers who completed a self-report survey. We computed simple correlations between respondents’ economic confidence and personality traits, and found statistically significant positive relationships for all the variables except neuroticism and locus of control. Multivariate regression analysis revealed that extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness were direct predictors of economic confidence. Understanding the influence of personality traits may elucidate potential ways to keep migrant workers in the cities.