Neurotic people have difficulty with relationships and marriage but U.S. researchers say if neurotic newlyweds have lots of sex, marital satisfaction is high.
Michelle Russell and James McNulty of the University of Tennessee say neuroticism is the tendency to experience negative emotion and people who are high in it get upset and irritated easily, change moods often, and worry frequently. People who score high in neuroticism are less satisfied in romance and relationships, and when they get married they are more likely to divorce.
“High levels of neuroticism are more strongly associated with bad marital outcomes than any other personality factor,” Russell and McNulty say in a statement.
Russell and McNulty tracked 72 newlywed couples during the first four years of their marriage as both spouses reported — separately and privately — on their marital satisfaction and sexual frequency every six months.
The study, published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, found on average, couples reported sexual intercourse about once a week during the first six months of marriage, and about three times a month by the fourth year of marriage.
The study found for spouses with high levels of neuroticism, frequent sexual intercourse improved their marital satisfaction — enough to completely wipe away the “happiness deficit” that neurotic spouses usually have.
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