Only recently have researchers begun to study marital quality, and the relationship between marital quality and other psychological phenomena, using genetically informative designs. Behavior genetics is an important area in which the analysis of relationship patterns, particularly marital quality, may aid in understanding the nosology and etiology of psychiatric dysfunction (Wamboldt & Reiss, 2006). In line with other work that finds moderate to substantial heritability of putatively “environmental” variables (Kendler & Baker, 2007; Rowe, 1981, 1983), Spotts and colleagues found moderate heritability of marital quality in both Swedish (Spotts et al., 2004b) and American (Spotts, Prescott, & Kendler, 2006) samples. Spotts et al. (2005a) showed that 32% of the total variance in wives’ marital satisfaction was shared in common with a personality composite of optimism and aggression, suggesting that genetically-influenced personality traits affect the establishment and maintenance of long-term romantic relationships. Spotts and colleagues have also found shared genetic influences between marital quality and well-being (Spotts et al., 2005b), and marital satisfaction and self-reported symptoms of depression (Spotts et al., 2004a).
