(outlink) Assortative Mating and Marital Quality in Newlyweds: A couple-Centered Approach

Summary of the abstract: We chose mates based on similarity of attitudes and not based on similarity of personality; happiness comes from similarity of personality, and attitudes don't matter.

The original paper is here.

Assortative Mating and Marital Quality in Newlyweds:
A Couple-Centered Approach

Shanhong Luo and Eva C. Klohnen
University of Iowa

Using a couple-centered approach, the authors examined assortative mating on a broad range of variables in a large (N = 291) sample of newlyweds. Couples showed substantial similarity on attitude-related domains but little on personality-related domains. Similarity was not due to social homogamy or convergence. The authors examined linear and curvilinear effects of spouse similarity on self and observer indicators of marital quality. Results show (a) positive associations between similarity and marital quality for personality-related domains but not for attitude-related domains, (b) that similarity on attachment characteristics were most strongly predictive of satisfaction, (c) robust curvilinear effects for husbands but not for wives, (d) that profile similarity remained a significant predictor of marital quality even when spouses’ self-ratings were controlled, and (e) that profile-based similarity indices were better predictors of marital quality than absolute difference scores.

Update: Fixed link that somehow had ended up as just underlined text - thanks, Dan!