New research from Germany: 2 Personality traits in women that are correlated with long-term marital satisfaction
Monday, July 31, 2023.
Women who are Introverted and Conscientious are satisfied with their marriages for longer, a recent study finds
It’s important to define our terms here, as this is a cross-cultural study.
What are Introverts?
Introverts are a personality type that most often prefers their own company and may be seen by others as reserved and retiring. Although introverts may appear shy, introverted behavior is something else entirely.
Introversion is a basic personality style which is characterized by a preference for an inner life of the mind over the feeling a need to engage in the world outside the mind which is populated by other humans. Introversion is considered one of the 5 dimensions by which we measure and describe all the manifest variations in human personality.
Introversion is found on a continuum from the other end of extroversion. Compared to extroverts, introverts enjoy solitary and subdued life experiences.
The trait that was most correlated with women who are conscientious is that they are also inclined to feel more satisfied with their lives after marrying.
I guess I should also explain what we mean by conscientious. Humans who are deemed conscientious are goal -oriented, serious, careful, and focused in their attention to tasks.
The study’s authors commented on the findings:
“Such a result might be explained by the tendency for conscientious individuals to place more value on relationship goals and therefore conscientious individuals may strive harder to ensure success.
This result is consistent with conscientious individuals being more satisfied with their relationships.”
On the other hand, extroverted men report greater married life satisfaction, while introverted men reported the less.
What was particularly interesting about this study was the finding that introverted men were less satisfied with life after getting married than men who never married.
How The Study Was Conducted
The conclusions come from a longitudinal study of over 2,000 Germans who were closely followed over the arc of eight years.
During this time, 468 got married, and their happiness levels were carefully noted.
Findings revealed that a human’s happiness peaks near the event of a marriage but then fades away after a year or two. This is also in keeping with other research I’ve discussed on this blog.
However, happiness changed over time in different ways depending on whether they were introverts or extroverts.
In terms of marital satisfaction, introverted women and extraverted men fared the best in the long-term. Others felt an erosion of satisfaction within a year or two.
The drop in happiness was sharper for men, particularly for introverted men, the authors write:
“Whilst all men experience a pre-marital increase in their life satisfaction, men that are extroverted seem to experience longer-term benefits to their life satisfaction during marriage.
Introverted men, however, experience significant drops in their life satisfaction that result in them being approximately 0.20 SD [standard deviations] lower in life satisfaction than those who never marry.”
I’m struck by the contrast.
Introverted German women tend to be satisfied with married life, but introverted men in this German study were significantly less satisfied. What do you think might be the reason?
Be Well, Stay Kind, and Godspeed.
RESEARCH:
The study was published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences (Boyce et al., 2016)
For better or for worse: The moderating effects of personality on the marriage-life satisfaction link,
Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 97, 2016,Pages 61-66, ISSN 0191-8869,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.03.005 (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886916301520).
