04/02/2025
Experts say that a person's personality undergoes massive transformation during the first years of marriage.
Researchers studied 169 newlywed heterosexual couples for 18 months to detect trends in their personality change after marriage.
In the study, published in Developmental Psychology, the team observed five personality changes among married couples: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
Commitment to marriage has a positive effect on the wives’ emotional stability, as data showed that wives became less anxious, depressed, and angry after marriage.
On the other hand, husbands become more conscientious, which means they become more dependable and responsible in marriage.
Yet, in the study, both partners were found to be less open as time went on. This change reflects their acceptance of the routines of marriage. In short, people fall into a pattern — one that is hard to modify or change. Ultimately, the study showed that couples generally become less extroverted and restrict their social circle once they are married.
While female-identifying partners are more agreeable at the start, researchers noted both partners become less patient and more disagreeable with each other as time passes. One explanation for this is that once the courtship period is over, old habits can come back. These changes were unaffected by age and relationship length before marriage.
Cohabitation before marriage, initial marital satisfaction, or parenthood status also did not affect the changes in these 5 traits of a couple’s personality. This suggests that, to some degree, these changes are universal and unavoidable.
Psychologists believe that self-control and forgiveness are two important marital skills required for a successful marriage.
Learn more: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5962362/
