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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Personality and Social Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 |
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1480570
Spouses' Personalities and Marital Satisfaction in Chinese Families
Provisionally accepted- 1 School of Social Sciences, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, Netherlands
- 2 Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
Introduction: Considering the traditional Confucian values prevalent in Chinese society, we study the effects of the spouses' personalities and household sociodemographic circumstances on the marital satisfaction of marriage partners. Methods: We evaluate the factors that contribute to marital satisfaction, using the 2018 wave of the Chinese Family Panel Survey, including 6,603 households. We use information on both spouses' Big-Five personality traits, and marital satisfaction. In addition, the effects of the household's sociodemographic factors on the spouses' marital satisfaction are estimated. We employ the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model to estimate the effects, using simultaneous equation modeling. Results: We find significant actor effects of personality, i.e., agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and extroversion, but few partner effects on marital satisfaction. In addition to other socioeconomic effects, we find strong actor effects of subjective social status on marital satisfaction for both spouses. The wife's level of education had a negative effect on her marital satisfaction. Discussion: The effects of the spouses' personalities and sociodemographic circumstances on their marital satisfaction fit the Confucian values fostered in China. The wife's double burden of having a job and taking care of household duties, negatively affecting her marital satisfaction, may be alleviated by proper government policies.
Keywords: marital satisfaction, happiness, Personality, Actor effects, partner effects
Received: 14 Aug 2024; Accepted: 17 Jan 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Antonides, Li and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Gerrit Antonides, School of Social Sciences, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, Netherlands
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