Neuroticism and marital satisfaction

Thirty happily married and thirty unhappily married couples were examined by means of the MPI questionnaire to test the hypothesis that emotional instability impaired satisfaction in marriage. Unhappily married partners were very significantly higher on neuroticism than happily married partners, but there were no differences in extraversion/introversion. The data suggest that the high neuroticism of the unhappily married partners antedates their marriage.     

Psychoticism and marital satisfaction

The author has tested the hypothesis that psychoticism, as described in Eysenck's theory of personality, is related to marriage outcome. Thirty happy and 30 unhappy couples answered the Eysencks' EPQ questionnaire. The unhappy husbands and unhappy wives scored significantly higher on the P scale than their happy counterparts respectively. The results suggest that psychoticism (like neuroticism) may impair the marriage satisfaction. In addition, happily married spouses show greater similarity with respect to personality than do unhappily married spouses. Thus the results support the likeness and go counter to the complementaries theories of marital satisfaction.     

Financial satisfaction and financial stressors in marital satisfaction

Using a sample of 310 married respondents from one U.S. Midwestern state, a test was conducted to examine the association of financial satisfaction and financial stressors in a spouse's decision to stay married to the same person or leave the relationship. The role of demographic and socioeconomic variables, religiosity, psychological constructs, financial satisfaction, and financial stressors as factors influencing marital satisfaction was tested. Financial stressors were measured using a list of financial stressors adapted from the literature. Financial satisfaction was measured with a one-item scale. The Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale was used as a validation tool to assess whether individuals would marry or not marry again. Religiosity and financial satisfaction were positively associated with marital satisfaction. A negative interaction between financial satisfaction and financial stressors was also noted. Findings suggest that respondents who are financially satisfied tend to be more stable in their marriages.     

Children’s tactics of mate choice manipulation: Exploring sex differences and personality effects

Parents do not always agree with their children’s mating decisions, and so they attempt to manipulate them in accepting mates of their choice and in terminating relationships with undesirable ones. Children engage in counter-manipulation in order to avoid undesirable mates to be imposed on them and to persuade their parents to accept the mates they have chosen. This paper aims to identify the main factors that predict the tactics that children use on their parents. In particular, three hypotheses are tested, namely the use of manipulation tactics is predicted by the personality of children, by the sex of children and by the sex of parents. Evidence from two independent studies finds support for the first two hypotheses, but no support for the third hypothesis. The implications of these findings are further discussed.     

The relationship between marital standards,dyadic coping and marital satisfaction

Different types of cognitions in close relationships have been identified. Yet, little is known about the nature and effects of most of them, such as marital standards. In our research project ‘What makes marriages last?’ we applied a German adaptation of the ‘Inventory of Specific Relationship Standards,’ a questionnaire measuring how much sharing, egalitarianism and investment spouses feel they should have and actually experience in their own marriage. We hypothesized that high, i.e., relationship‐focused standards, should be associated with dyadic coping processes as well as with marital satisfaction. Thereby, dyadic coping was expected to play a mediating role between standards and marital satisfaction. Based on a sample of 663 German married couples, we found significant correlations between standards, marital satisfaction, and dyadic coping processes. Moreover, supportive behavior in stressful situations had the expected partial mediating effect, which turned out to be slightly different for husbands and wives. Implications for preventive and therapeutic intervention are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Attachment,caregiving, and marital satisfaction

This research tested the proposition that attachment and caregiving are central, interrelated components of adult love relationships. A sample of 229 married couples was used to assess the association between attachment and caregiving styles and the implications of these variables for marital satisfaction. There was evidence of partner matching in terms of dimensions of attachment (Comfort with closeness, Anxiety over relationships) and caregiving (Responsive care, Compulsive care). Secure attachment (high Comfort with closeness, low Anxiety over relationships) was associated with beneficial caregiving to the spouse (high Responsive care, low Compulsive care). These associations were modest in size, however, suggesting that attachment and caregiving are separate constructs; further, these constructs were related in different ways to retrospective reports of early parenting. Marital satisfaction was higher for securely attached spouses, and for those whose partners reported more beneficial caregiving. For husbands, however, the link between caregiving and satisfaction was restricted to short-term marriages, and to those high in Anxiety over relationships. Overall, the results support the role of attachment and caregiving in marriage, but suggest that variables such as gender have important moderating effects.     

A model of resilience and marital satisfaction

This article examined the hypothesis that resilience mediates the relationship between marital satisfaction and a host of relevant variables, including spousal attachment, social support, and affect. Participants were 195 married individuals, who completed online surveys about their marriage. Importantly, the findings indicated that resilience has a direct effect on marital satisfaction. In addition, affect and social support were each shown to indirectly impact satisfaction through resilience. The relationships between spousal attachment, resilience, and satisfaction were more complicated than predicted and are further discussed. Overall, the results demonstrate the importance of resilience in marital satisfaction.     

Intelligence and imagery in personality.

One hundred college undergraduates were administered the Richardson revision of the Gordon Test of Visual Imagery Control, the Betts-Sheehan Questionnaire Upon Mental Imagery, and the Shipley-Hartford Institute of Living Scale. The latter provided a conceptual quotient (CQ) score of intellectual impairment based upon a ratio between vocabulary and abstraction scores. Subjects with CQs above 100 had significantly higher control scores (p less than .02). High control subjects had significantly higher total IQ scores than did low control subjects (p less than .04). Subjects with high and medium range control had higher vocabulary scores than those with low control. This suggests possible assessment of proneness toward introverted and extraverted neuroticism based upon a combination type of imagery score and the ratio between abstract or vocabulary scores. The connection of imagery with dimensions of IQ may be a start toward a more refined measure of this aspect of personality. Problems and implications are discussed.     

Personality and compatibility: a prospective analysis of marital stability and marital satisfaction

The antecedents of marital stability (divorce or remaining married) and marital satisfaction (within the group that remains married) were investigated with a panel of 300 couples who were followed from their engagements in the 1930s until 1980. Twenty-two of the couples broke their engagements; of the 278 couples who married, 50 got divorced at some time between 1935 and 1980. Personality characteristics (measured by acquaintance ratings made in the 1930s) were important predictors of both marital stability and marital satisfaction. The three aspects of personality most strongly related to marital outcome were the neuroticism of the husband, the neuroticism of the wife, and the impulse control of the husband. In combination, the 17 major antecedent variables were moderately predictive of a criterion variable composed of both marital stability and marital satisfaction (R = .49). The three major aspects of personality accounted for more than half of the predictable variance. The remaining variance was accounted for by attitudinal, social-environment, and sexual history variables.     

Borderline personality disorder features and mate retention tactics

The purpose of the present study was to examine the association between features of borderline personality disorder (BPD) and mate retention tactics as a means of examining an evolutionary perspective on the association between BPD features and interpersonal problems and violence in romantic relationships. Two-hundred twenty-five college student participants completed the Personality Assessment Inventory for Borderlines (PAI-BOR; Morey, 1991) and the Mate Retention Inventory-Short Form (MRI-SF; Buss, Shackelford, & McKibbin, 2008) embedded within other measures. There was a strong association between BPD features and cost-inflicting mate retention tactics, including the specific tactics of vigilance, punishing mate's infidelity threat, intrasexual threats, and sexual inducements for both men and women. There were also gender-specific associations for additional tactics. These results contribute to our understanding of problems in romantic relationships among men and women with BPD features, including violence, and to our understanding of impulsive sexual behavior among individuals with BPD features by showing how these behaviors are used as extreme, maladaptive attempts at mate retention.     

Sex role identity,marital power,and marital satisfaction among middle-class couples in India

The study attempted to ascertain the circumstances or conditions under which power structure in families may vary from husband domination to egalitarianism and to wife domination. Power was inferred on the basis of decision-making outcome. Among the antecedents were included two variables of wives' employment and androgyny. Consequences of power were explored with reference to marital satisfaction. Data were collected through in-home interviews conducted with husbands and wives in 101 families. The results indicated wives' employment and androgyny to be significantly and positively related to their decision-making authority in the family. Also, as compared to those in autonomic or wife-dominated families, respondents in syncratic and husband-dominated families reported higher levels of marital satisfaction. Results are explained in the light of theoretical formulations relating to resources and norms. The need for taking an unconventional approach to the conceptualization of resources is stressed.     

Couple similarity on stimulus characteristics and marital satisfaction

Murstein's (1970) “stimulus–value–role” theory suggests that mate selection consists of three stages. At each stage people seek different types of information. This study extends previous research on couple similarity by focusing on the “stimulus” stage where people attend to stimulus information—the most salient personal information. This stage has received less attention than the “value” and “role” stages. A sample of 641 married couples from Central Alberta, Canada provided information on a wide range of stimulus characteristics including background, physical and perceptual variables, as well as spirituality and growth orientation for comparison. Correlation results showed evidence for strong and consistent couple similarity on stimulus characteristics, suggesting that those characteristics are important domains to partner selection. Structural equation modeling results indicated that couple similarity (measured by absolute and directional difference score) overall was not a strong predictor of marital satisfaction; however, discrepancies in age, spirituality, and growth orientation were significant predictors of dissatisfaction.     

Mate guarding and parental influence on mate choice

The hypothesis that the degree to which parents control the mate choice of their children may explain differences in mate guarding across and within cultures was tested. Study 1, in a sample of 80 students from 30 different countries studying in The Netherlands, showed that the perceived level of parental influence on mate choice in a culture was associated with more mate guarding reported by individuals from that culture. Study 2, in a sample of 242 Argentinean individuals, showed that individuals who were more in favor of parental influence on mate choice did report more mate guarding. The effects remained intact when controlling for potentially confounding variables.     

Prospective associations between marital adjustment and life satisfaction

Actor and partner effects for the 2‐year longitudinal associations between marital adjustment and life satisfaction were evaluated in a population‐based sample of middle‐aged and older adults (N = 1,385 couples). Results showed that (a) higher marital adjustment at baseline predicted higher life satisfaction at follow‐up, (b) higher life satisfaction at baseline predicted higher marital adjustment at follow‐up, (c) marital adjustment more strongly predicted life satisfaction than life satisfaction predicted marital adjustment for women, and (d) higher partner marital adjustment at baseline predicted higher life satisfaction at follow‐up. Results suggest that marital adjustment and life satisfaction influence one another in a bidirectional fashion and that the direction is predominantly from marital adjustment to life satisfaction in women.     

Impulsivity,communication, and marital satisfaction in newlywed couples

The authors used a vulnerability–stress–adaptation framework to examine how and why impulsivity affects communication and marital satisfaction in a sample of 100 newlywed couples. We specifically examined the links between impulsivity and perceptions of conflict communication patterns and their associations with marital satisfaction. Using an actor–partner interdependence framework, the results demonstrated that impulsivity was negatively associated with one's own and partner's marital satisfaction. Impulsivity was also negatively associated with constructive communication and positively associated with destructive communication. Furthermore, mediation analyses showed that communication patterns mediated the impulsivity–satisfaction link. Taken together, these findings suggest that impulsivity is likely to lead to lower marital satisfaction, partly through its effect on communication between partners.     

Couples treatment of agoraphobia: changes in marital satisfaction

Six agoraphobic women and their husbands participated in a group therapy program consisting of exposure and cognitive restructuring. The husbands acted as co-therapists. Ratings of marital satisfaction as well as severity of phobia were filled out independently by both clients and their husbands throughout the course of therapy and at follow-up. Two patterns of relationships among marital satisfaction and severity of phobia emerged. For four couples a parallel relationship was observed in that as phobia improved marital satisfaction increased. For two couples the inverse relationship was noted where improvements in phobia were correlated with decreases in marital satisfaction. The importance of the interpersonal context of agoraphobia and implications for treatment are suggested.     

Adult attachment,emotional control,and marital satisfaction

This study extends previous research into the relations among attachment style, emotional experience, and emotional control. Questionnaire measures of these variables were completed by a broad sample of 238 married couples. Continuous measures of attachment showed that insecure attachment (low Comfort with closeness; high Anxiety over relationships) was related to greater control of emotion, regardless of whether the emotion was partner-related or not. Insecure attachment was also associated with less frequent and intense positive emotion and with more frequent and intense negative emotion, although these links depended on context (partner-related or not), attachment dimension, and gender. Emotional control added to the prediction of marital satisfaction, after controlling for attachment dimensions; the most robust links with satisfaction were inverse relations with own control of positive emotion and with partner's control of negative emotion. The results are discussed in terms of attachment theory, affect regulation, and communication in marriage.     

Sex role orientation and marital satisfaction in dual- and one-provider couples

Scores on the Baucom scales of Masculinity (MSC) and Femininity (FMN), and on three scales from the Snyder Marital Satisfaction Inventory, were obtained from samples of dual- and one-provider couples. Data on rewards and difficulties of the dual- and one-provider lifestyles were collected by means of open-ended questions. The two groups of couples did not differ in sex role orientation or marital satisfaction. The men's levels of MSC were positively related to their marital satisfaction in both groups, and the women's levels of FMN were especially important to couples' satisfaction in the dual-provider group. In both groups, cross-sex scores (women's MSC and men's FMN) were positively related to couples' satisfaction with marital companionship.Bernadette Gray-Little, Ph.D., W. Grant Dahlstrom, Ph.D., and Elizabeth Rossman, Ph.D. are gratefully acknowledged for the guidance and support they provided to the author during this research.