Wives' higher neuroticism scores: Some more relevant factors

Findings from two studies suggest two factors that may contribute to statictics showing wives as having higher levels of neuroticism than husbands: firstly, brides have higher scores than grooms at the point of marriage and thereafter their scores appear to fall in these cross-sectional samples; the problem of wives' higher scores may therefore be partly determined by a factor opearting prior to marriage. The second factor appears to be marital divergence on E, which is positively correlated with N scores in wives but not in husbands. Additionally, marital divergence is associated with poor communication, and divergence appears to be better predictor of wives' neuroticism than whether or not wives are employed outside the home.