Predicting marital commitment based on dark triad traits and big five of personality

Marital commitment in long-term relationships is influenced by underlying factors including personality traits. In previous researches, there are many inconsistencies about which of personality traits are related to marital commitment truly. in addition, most of researches have focused on the big five of personality and role of dark triad traits has been little discussed.

This study aimed to predict marital commitment based on dark triad traits and big five of personality in married women.

The present study is a descriptive correlational study. In this research, 327 married women were selected from people who referred to counseling centers which are under supervision of the State Welfare Organization of Shiraz, by the convenience sampling method. Participants were asked to fill the Short Dark Triad (SD3) scale (Jones & Paulhus, 2014), NEO Five Factor Personality Inventory (McCrae & Costa, 2004) and Dimensions of Commitment Inventory (Adams & Jones, 1997). Pearson correlation coefficient and standard multiple regression were used to analyze the research data.

The results showed that among variables of dark triad traits and the big five of personality, neuroticism (β= -0.301, p< 0.001) and Machiavellianism (β= -0.105, p<0.05) are significant and negative predictors and conscientiousness (β= 0.214, p< 0.01) is significant and positive predictor of marital commitment. Also, the combination of research variables is significantly related to marital commitment and explained%25.9 of its variance.

Based on the results, neuroticism, concientiousness, and machiavellianism have important roles in predicting of marital commitment and should be noticed to increase the commitment in long-term relationships.