PERSONALITY TRAITS, INTERPERSONAL PATTERNS, AND MARITAL ADJUSTMENT IN PAKISTANI COUPLES

Abstract

Background: Marital adjustment is vital to both individual and social welfare in collectivist societies such as Pakistan that is characterized by a high number of arranged marriages, joint families, and sociocultural rules. The present study examines the connections between the Big Five personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness) and interpersonal patterns (pathologizing, deteriorating, healing, wellness, sociocultural) with marital adjustment and how these variables could mediate the cultural stressors and relationship processes among urban Pakistani couples.

Procedure: The cross-sectional design was used which was correlational design involving 1,100 married adults (50% male, 50% female; mean age 30.35 years) in Lahore, Pakistan, were recruited through stratified random sampling. The Big Five Personality Inventory (Urdu version), Interpersonal Pattern Scale and revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale were filled in by the participants. The data were explored with the SPSS version 26, using descriptive statistics and Pearson correlations, and the normality was verified with the help of skewness and kurtosis.

Results: Pathologizing (r = -.67, p <.01), and deteriorating patterns (r = -.64, p <.01) had negative correlations to marital adjustment and healing (r =.55, p <.01) and wellness patterns (r =.50, p <.01) had positive correlations. Sociocultural patterns, which are negatively related (r = -.31, p <.01). The predictors of adjustment were negative with neuroticism (r = -.09, p < .05) but positive with agreeableness (r = .09, p < .05) and conscientiousness (r =.18, p<.01). It had a positive correlation with extraversion (r =.09, p = less than.05) but not with openness.

Conclusion: Adaptive interpersonal patterns and positive personality traits improve the marital quality which offers protection to cultural pressures in Pakistan. The results suggest the use of culturally sensitive interventions to enhance empathy and decrease maladaptive exchange and, possibly, enhance and increase mental health and decrease relational distress.