Relationship between proactive personality and marital satisfaction: A spillover-crossover perspective

This study adopted the spillover-crossover model to examine proactive personality as a potential antecedent of marital satisfaction among dual-earner couples in China. We collected data from 241 Chinese dual-earner couples, and found that proactive personality was positively associated with marital satisfaction through increased work-family facilitation and decreased work-family conflict for men. However, the effect of proactive personality on marital satisfaction was complex and overall negative for women. Specifically, proactive personality was positively related to work-family facilitation and work-family conflict, which in turn positively and negative predicted marital satisfaction, respectively. Furthermore, our results showed a direct crossover effect of marital satisfaction between partners, suggesting that the effect of people's proactive personality on their own marital satisfaction might cross over to their spouses. This study contributes to a broader understanding of the effect of proactive personality.