TABLE 4.

Personality Traits and Marital Outcomes

Study	N	Outcome	Time	Controls	Predictors	Results	Est. r
Bentler & Newcomb, 1978	77 couples (53 males, 24 females)	Divorce	4 years		Men’s extraversion orderliness Women’s clothes consciousness Congeniality	p = .05 p = .05 p = .05 p = .05	re = .27 re = .27 re = −.40 re = −.40
Caspi, Elder, & Bern, 1987	87 men from the Berkeley Guidance Study	Divorce	31 years		Childhood ill-temperedness	p = .02	re = .25
Huston, Caughlin, Houts, Smith, & George, 2001	152 couples	Early divorce	Few months after marriage	Gender, affectional expression, love, contrariness, ambivalence, negativity Gender, affectional expression, love, contrariness, ambivalence, negativity	Responsiveness (Agreeableness) Contrariness (Neuroticism)	F(4, 147) = 4.49, p <.01 F(4, 147) = 1.29, (p values not available)	rF = −.17 re = −.21 rF = .09
Jockin, McGue, & Lykken, 1996	1,490 female and 696 male twins	Ever divorced	Cross-sectional		Positive Emotionality (women) Positive Emotionality (men) Negative Emotionality (women) Negative Emotionality (men) Constraint (women) Constraint (men)	d = .23 p < .01 d = .21 p < .01 d = .21 p < .01 d = .20 p < .01 d = −.34 p < .01 d = −.20 p < .01	rd = .11 re = .07 rd = .10 re = .10 rd = .10 re = .10 rd = .10 re = .10 rd = −.17 re = −.10 rd = −.10 re = −.10
Kelly & Conley, 1987	556 married men and women	Marital compatibility (divorced versus happily married)	45 years		Husband’s Neuroticism Husband’s impulse control Wife’s Neuroticism	r = .27 r = −.25 r = .38	r = .27 r = −.25 r = .38
Kinnunen & Pulkkinen, 2003	108 women and 109 men from the Jyvaskyla Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development	Divorced versus intact marriage at age 36	28, 22, or 9 years		Women’s age 8 Aggression Women’s age 8 Lability Women’s age 27 Conscientiousness Women’s age 27 Agreeableness Men’s age 8 Aggression Men’s age 8 Compliance Men’s age 14 Aggression Men’s age 14 Compliance Men’s age 27 Conscientiousness Men’s age 27 Agreeableness	d =.69 d = .43 d = −.12 d = −.54 d = .68 d = .59 d = .57 d = .74 d = .82 d = .61	rd = .30 rd = .19 rd = −.05 rd = −.24 rd = .26 rd = .23 rd = .22 rd = .28 rd = .31 rd = .24
Kurdek, 1993	286 couples	Divorce	5 years		Neuroticism (husband) Neuroticism (wife) Conscientiousness (husband) Conscientiousness (wife) Positive Emotionality (husband)	F(1, 284) = 17.34, p = .000005 F(1, 284) = 14.21, p = .0002 F(1, 284) = −2.78, p = .096 F(1, 284) = −4.16, p = 042 d = .21 p < .01	rF = .25 re = .24 re = .22 rF = .22 re = −.10 rF = −.10 rF = −.12 re = −.12 rd = .10 re = .10
Lawrence & Bradbury, 2001	60 couples from Los Angeles	Divorce	4 years		Aggressiveness	OR = 2.37 p = .06	re = .24 ro = .23
Loeb, 1966	639 college students	Divorce	13 years		Women’s MMPI psychopathic deviancy Men’s MMPI psychopathic deviancy Men’s MMPI hypochondriasis Men’s MMPI hysteria Men’s MMPI schizophrenia	p < .025 p < .025 p < .005 p < .025 p < .05	re = .13 re = .13 re = .16 re = .13 re = .11
McCranie & Kahan, 1986	431 physicians	Number of divorces	25 years		MMPI psychopathic deviancy	r = .13	r = .13
Roberts & Bogg, 2004	99 women from the Mills Longitudinal Study	Ever divorced	22 years		Responsibility	r = −.21	r = −.21
Skolnick, 1981	122 members of the IHD longitudinal studies	Divorce versus satisfied marriage			Cognitively invested Emotionally aggressive Nurturant Under controlled	p = .06 p = .08 p = .06 p = .008	re = −.17 re = .16 re = −.17 re = .24
Tucker et al., 1998	773 from the Normative Aging Study	Divorce	26 years	Age at marriage, education	Inadequacy Anxiety Sensitivity Anger Tension	OR = 2.40 (1.36, 4.35) p < .01 OR = 2.80 (1.55, 5.15) p < .001 OR = 2.80 (1.50, 5.25) p < .01 OR = 2.70 (1.54, 4.71) p < .001 OR = 1.20 (0.61, 2.51)	ror = .11 re = .09 ror = .12 re = .12 ror = .12 re = .09 ror = .13 re = .12 ror = .02
	968 members of the Terman Life Cycle Study	Divorce	53 to 78 years	Sex, education, age at marriage	Conscientiousness Perseverance Sympathy Not egotistical	OR parent rating = 0.92 (0.84, 1.01) OR teacher rating = 0.92 (0.83, 1.01) OR parent rating = 1.01 (0.92, 1.11) OR teacher rating = 0.95 (0.86, 1.05) OR parent rating = 0.94 (0.85, 1.02) OR teacher rating = 0.95 (0.84, 1.07) OR parent rating = 0.95 (0.87,1.03) OR teacher rating = 0.96 (0.87, 1.05)	ror = −.07 ror = −.08 ror = .01 ror = −.05 ror = −.06 ror = −.04 ror = −.05 ror = −.04

Note. Confidence intervals are given in parentheses. HR = hazard ratio; RR = relative risk ratio; OR = odds ratio; r_d = Correlation estimated from the d score; r_or = correlation estimated from the odds ratio; r_F = correlation estimated from F test; r_e = r_equivalent (correlation estimated from the reported p value and sample size); MMPI = Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory; IHS = Institute of Human Development.