Partner discrepancies in distressed marriages.

Spousal discrepancy theory posits that partners with wide personality differences are at risk for marital distress. In this study, we assessed links between partner personality and interpersonal characteristics and marital distress in 244 couples who sought marital therapy. The sample was divided into three subgroups according to marital duration. Longer-married couples reflected significantly less impulsive, exploitive, and insensitive characteristics than couples in either shorter or intermediate marriages. Couples' marital distress was linked to larger discrepancies in personal distress, impulsivity, interpersonal insensitivity, and self-centered characteristics. While husbands' marital distress was linked to partner differences in personal distress and to impulsive, narcissistic, and competitive characteristics, wives' marital distress was primarily linked to partner discrepancies in self-centeredness.