Personality traits and marital satisfaction within enduring relationships An intra-couple discrepancy approach

• Published in: Journal of Social and Personal Relationships Vol. 29; no. 3; pp. 375 - 396
• Main Authors: Claxton, Amy, O’Rourke, Norm, Smith, JuliAnna Z., DeLongis, Anita
• Format: Book Review Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.05.2012; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Couples; Divorce; Heterosexuality; Husbands; Interpersonal perception; Interpersonal relations; Marital Satisfaction; Methodology (Data Collection); Neuroses; Neuroticism; Perceptions; Personality; Personality traits; Social perception; Spouses; Wives; older adults; discrepancy analyses; personality; long-term marriage; marital satisfaction
• ISSN: 0265-4075; 1460-3608
• DOI: 10.1177/0265407511431183

In this study of 125 heterosexual long-wed couples, we examined both spouses’ personality traits and relative differences in partner perceptions of personality as predictors of marital satisfaction, simultaneously for both husbands and wives. As hypothesized, each of the Big Five personality traits emerged as significantly associated with marital satisfaction though significant between-trait and between-sex differences were observed. Most notably, trait levels predicted marital satisfaction less consistently than positive reporting discrepancies (i.e., comparatively greater extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and lower neuroticism reported by spouses vis-à-vis their partners’ self-descriptions). While previous research points to a central role of neuroticism, our findings suggest that conscientiousness is the trait most broadly associated with marital satisfaction in this sample of long-wed couples. These differences between study findings may reflect change over the course of married life, the degree to which neuroticism determines divorce, overreliance on younger samples in previous marital research, or some combination of these three.