Role of Personality Traits in Predicting Newlywed Intimacy and Relationship Quality

ABSTRACT

While personality traits can predict couples’ behaviors in marital life, there are limited studies on the relationship between personality and marital relationships. This study aimed to examine the role of personality in predicting intimacy and the quality of marital relationships in newlywed couples. This cross-sectional study included 115 newlywed couples who participated in an online survey. Participants completed three questionnaires: the NEO Personality Inventory for assessing personality traits, the Intimacy Safety Questionnaire (ISQ) for measuring marital intimacy, and the Quality of Marriage Index (QMI) for evaluating marital quality. Marital intimacy was positively predicted by extraversion and conscientiousness in women and extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness in men. Relationship quality was negatively predicted by neuroticism in women while positively predicted by openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness in men.

KEYWORDS:

• Couple
• personality
• intimacy
• marital relationship

Acknowledgments

We would like thanks to the psychologists of Segal Counseling Center for their invaluable assistance in the sampling process and the successful organization of face-to-face meetings for our study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The datasets generated and analyzed for the current study are not publicly available due to ethical concerns, but are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request and after clearance from the ethics committee.

Ethical approval

This study approved by the Ethics Committee of Sari University of Medical Sciences with the code. Anonymity and confidentiality for participants were guaranteed. All participants wrote the informed consent at the beginning of the study. Approval ID: IR.IAU.SARI.REC.1401.190

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Behshahr Azad University under Grant 190.