I always enjoy reading research about married life.  It makes me recognize what I did or did not do over the years.

The Pew Center found that women getting married for the first time viewed steady employment as the deal maker.  More than 3/4 (78%) of them felt that way, with just a little less (70%) worried that their potential spouse would want to raise children the same way as they would.  Only about 1/3 (38%) were as worried about finding someone of the same religious or moral code.

Yet, these facts (or, at least, the women’s opinions) may cause them some real problems down the road.  (Oh, by the way, marriages are lasting longer nowadays. So, that road is longer.)  Because one’s career advancement is not a function of a spouse’s steady employment or possessing the same moral code.  Nope, the conscientiousness of one’s spouse is the critical factor in one’s career success.

Drs. Joshua Jackson and Brittany Solomon (Washington University) reported their findings in Psychological Science. They tested 4,544 married (Australian) folks using what is known as the “Big Five” test.  This test examines our adherence to five characteristics:  extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness.

Lo and behold, the only characteristic that was associated with the career success of the other partner was conscientiousness.  In particular, it affected the spouse’s job satisfaction, income levels, and promotions on the job.

While the study only examined Australian citizens, the authors believe their findings are  a ‘universal’ among Western society.  They  used Australian subjects, because of the availability of said data, including data on the careers of both spouses.

Their first essay was to correlate personality traits with one’s own career success.  Not surprisingly, extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientious were the critical traits for job satisfaction.  Better salaries correlated with the subject’s conscientiousness, and promotions with one’s extraversion.

Contrary to what many folks like to tell me, those folks that were more agreeable failed to be promoted at work and, therefore, accrued lower income levels.  But, as anyone should suspect, the more neurotic subjects rarely reported they were satisfied with their jobs.

But, then Drs. Jackson and Solomon examined the characteristics of one’s spouse.  And, only spousal conscientiousness afforded any correlation with the career of the other spouse.

The researchers attribute the correlation to our ability (and desire…as long as we are happily married) to emulate the spouse’s behavior.  Or, maybe this degree of industry “rubs off” on the other spouse.

But, it also could be related to a secondary issue. The conscientious spouse is probably providing valuable efforts in the household; effecting chores, dealing with the kids- thereby freeing up the other spouse to concentrate on his/her job.  (I know that helped my ex, but so did the deliberate search for the best nanny this side of heaven.  Thanks Titi!!!)

Oh, and before you jump to your biased conclusions (you know you were going there fast), there were no gender differences in these results.  The conscientious spouse helped the other, whether it was a he or a she.

As we all should know by now, pick one’s spouse very carefully.

Share this: