An Exploratory Investigation of the Role of Openness in Relationship Quality among Emerging Adult Chinese Couples

Abstract

This study tested emerging adult couples’ openness and its fit effect on their romantic relationship quality using quadratic polynomial regression and response surface analysis. Participants were 260 emerging adult dyads. Both dyads’ openness and relationship quality were measured. The result showed that (1) female and male openness contribute differently to relationship quality; (2) couples with similar high openness could experience better relationship quality than those with similar low openness traits; and (3) when dyadic openness is dissimilar, it is better to be either relatively high or relatively low than to be moderate. These findings highlight the role of openness in emerging adults’ romantic relationships from a dyadic angle.

The Actor, Partner, Similarity Effects of Personality, and Interactions with Gender and Relationship Duration among Chinese Emerging Adults

“…Thus, complementary openness could help enhance couples' satisfaction levels. Zhou et al ( 2017 ) found that, for Chinese dating young adults, openness in complementary matching dyads corresponds to better relationship quality than openness in moderate matching dyads.…”

Personality and Social Relationships: As Thick as Thieves

“…Most studies on similarity have assumed linear effects, thereby neglecting the possibilities (a) that too much similarity might be as detrimental for relationship outcomes as too much dissimilarity and (b) that similarity on the low end of a trait dimension has different effects on the relationship as compared to similarity on the high end pole. Indeed, in two recent studies (Weidmann, Schönbrodt, Ledermann, & Grob, 2017;Zhou, Wang, Chen, Zhang, & Zhou, 2017) it was shown that the association between similarity and relationship satisfaction is more complex than previously thought. For instance, in a study with 237 couples, Weidmann et al (2017) observed that couples in which both members had moderate levels of openness were more satisfied with their relationships two years later than couples whose members had similar high or low levels of openness or were dissimilar to each other.…”

Lonely Me, Lonely You: Loneliness and the Longitudinal Course of Relationship Satisfaction

“…In this way, dyadic response surface analysis provides a nuanced view on partner (dis)similarity and relationship satisfaction (Schönbrodt et al 2018). This method has already been applied to investigate the association between the Big Five personality traits and several aspects of relationship quality (Leikas et al 2018;van Scheppingen et al 2019;Weidmann et al 2017;Zhou et al 2017). In a study with 141 couples, for example, Weidmann et al (2017) found relationship satisfaction of men to be particularly high when the men and their spouses were either congruently low or congruently high in neuroticism.…”