Skip to main content
construction release_alert
The Scholars Team is working with OIT to resolve some issues with the Scholars search index
cancel
Journal cover image

It's not just who you're with, it's who you are: personality and relationship experiences across multiple relationships.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Robins, RW; Caspi, A; Moffitt, TE
Published in: Journal of personality
December 2002

The present study examined the influence of stable personality traits on romantic relationships using longitudinal data on a large, representative sample of young adults. Relationship experiences (quality, conflict, and abuse) showed relatively small mean-level changes over time and significant levels of rank-order stability, even across different relationship partners. Antecedent personality traits (assessed at age 18) predicted relationship experiences at age 26 and change in relationship experiences from age 21 to 26. Conversely, relationship experiences also predicted change in personality. Importantly, these findings generally held across relationship partners, suggesting that some people tend to be generally happy (or unhappy) across relationships, and this is due, in part, to stable individual differences in personality. Discussion focuses on the broader implications of the findings, in particular the need for relationship researchers to consider the importance of personality for why relationships thrive or fail and the need for personality researchers to consider the impact of relationship experiences on intraindividual personality development.

Duke Scholars

Altmetric Attention Stats
Dimensions Citation Stats

Published In

Journal of personality

DOI

EISSN

1467-6494

ISSN

0022-3506

Publication Date

December 2002

Volume

70

Issue

6

Start / End Page

925 / 964

Related Subject Headings

  • Violence
  • Social Psychology
  • Sex Factors
  • Regression Analysis
  • Personality Development
  • Personality
  • New Zealand
  • Multivariate Analysis
  • Marriage
  • Male
 

Citation

APA
Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
NLM
Robins, R. W., Caspi, A., & Moffitt, T. E. (2002). It's not just who you're with, it's who you are: personality and relationship experiences across multiple relationships. Journal of Personality, 70(6), 925–964. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6494.05028
Robins, Richard W., Avshalom Caspi, and Terrie E. Moffitt. “It's not just who you're with, it's who you are: personality and relationship experiences across multiple relationships.Journal of Personality 70, no. 6 (December 2002): 925–64. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6494.05028.
Robins RW, Caspi A, Moffitt TE. It's not just who you're with, it's who you are: personality and relationship experiences across multiple relationships. Journal of personality. 2002 Dec;70(6):925–64.
Robins, Richard W., et al. “It's not just who you're with, it's who you are: personality and relationship experiences across multiple relationships.Journal of Personality, vol. 70, no. 6, Dec. 2002, pp. 925–64. Epmc, doi:10.1111/1467-6494.05028.
Robins RW, Caspi A, Moffitt TE. It's not just who you're with, it's who you are: personality and relationship experiences across multiple relationships. Journal of personality. 2002 Dec;70(6):925–964.
Journal cover image

Published In

Journal of personality

DOI

EISSN

1467-6494

ISSN

0022-3506

Publication Date

December 2002

Volume

70

Issue

6

Start / End Page

925 / 964

Related Subject Headings

  • Violence
  • Social Psychology
  • Sex Factors
  • Regression Analysis
  • Personality Development
  • Personality
  • New Zealand
  • Multivariate Analysis
  • Marriage
  • Male