When Personality Meets Belief: Predictors of Relationship Satisfaction

Our research aims to fill a gap in relationship satisfaction research by examining how different variables interact and influence relationship satisfaction. Specifically, our research will explore how a person’s conscientiousness score and religious beliefs work together to influence how satisfied they feel in their romantic relationships. Previous studies have found that both personality traits and religious beliefs influence relationship satisfaction (David et al., 2013). People who score high in conscientiousness—a personality trait linked to being reliable, organized, and self-disciplined—tend to report stronger, more stable relationships (Schaffhuser et al., 2014). Separately, people who identify as religious often experience higher satisfaction in their relationships, possibly because shared faith, community values, and spiritual practices strengthen communication and commitment (David et al., 2013). Based on this past research, we believe that participants' religiosity score will be positively correlated with their relationship satisfaction, participants’ conscientiousness score will be positively correlated with their relationship satisfaction, and religiosity will moderate the association between conscientiousness and relationship satisfaction, such that the positive association between conscientiousness and relationship satisfaction will be stronger at higher levels of religiosity.