Personality similarity or complementarity? Self-disclosure influences relationship satisfaction among young couples

The study examined the relationship between personality similarity and romantic relationship satisfaction through self-disclosure and partner’s disclosure in early adulthood. One-hundred pairs of Hong Kong heterosexual couples (89 dating pairs and 11 married pairs) were recruited. All the participants were young adults with a mean age of 24.47 and 22.82 for men and women, respectively. They were asked to complete three questionnaires which were The Big Five Inventory, The Self-disclosure Index and The Relationship Assessment Scale (RAS). An actor-partner interdependence model was conducted to examine these relationships. The result showed the personality similarity positively related to the level of self-disclosure and facilitate own relationship satisfaction in early adulthood, even after the main variables such as partner’s self-disclosure, partner’s relationship satisfaction was statistically controlled. Although personality similarity increases the level of partner’s disclosure, it had less correlation between partner’s disclosure and own relationship satisfaction after controlling self-disclosure. The results suggest that the higher level of personality similarity, the higher level of self-disclosure and relationship satisfaction the young couples received. All rights reserved.