Abstract
This study examined the actor, partner, and (dis)similarity effects of personality on marital satisfaction, considering the interaction with marital duration. Participants were 749 Japanese married couples. The results of an actor–partner interdependence model, which includes interaction with marital duration, showed that there was little interaction between actor and partner effects and marital duration, indicating that both one’s own and the partner’s personality have consistent effects on satisfaction throughout marital duration. In contrast, similarity effects did interact with marital duration. In shorter marital duration, similar couples were less satisfied, whereas similarity had no effect on satisfaction in longer marital duration. We discuss the possible influence of the transition from a romantic relationship to a marital relationship.
Highlights
This study examined the actor, partner, andsimilarity effects of personality on marital satisfaction, considering the interaction of marital duration
Partner effects represent the linkage between a personality of each individual and his or her partner’s marital satisfaction. (Dis)similarity effects estimate whether a partner having a personality that is similar or not to one’s own is associated with higher marital satisfaction
The aim of the present study is to examine the effects of actor, partner, andsimilarity on marital satisfaction with consideration for the interaction between them and marital duration
Summary
This study examined the actor, partner, and (dis)similarity effects of personality on marital satisfaction, considering the interaction of marital duration. In accord with the Vulnerability–Stress–Adaptation model (Karney & Bradbury, 1995), personal dispositions have relationships with both everyday interactions and dyadic adaptation to external stressors. A lot of previous studies have reported that people’s personality traits relate to satisfaction of their own romantic relationships (e.g., Robins, Caspi, & Moffitt, 2000; Watson, Hubbard, & Wiese, 2000). Neuroticism, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness are the personality traits with the robust actor effects on relationship satisfaction A previous study reported significant partner effects on relationship satisfaction using a meta-analysis (Malouff, Thorsteinsson, Schutte, Bhullar, & Rooke, 2010) This meta-analysis revealed that participants with higher Neuroticism scores showed lower satisfaction scores, and participants with higherAgreeableness and Conscientiousness scores showed higher satisfaction scores. This meta-analysis stressed only on zero-order correlations, Dyrenforth, Kashy, Donnellan, and Lucas (2010) demonstrated that these effects were maintained in marital couples even when actor effects were controlled
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