Compensatory Conscientiousness Redux: A Direct Replication of Roberts, Smith, Jackson, and Edmonds (2009)
Social Psychological and Personality Science
Published online on August 01, 2016
Abstract
The present study attempted to closely replicate Roberts, Smith, Jackson, and Edmonds (2009) who found, in part, a compensatory effect such that individuals with spouses higher in conscientiousness reported higher self-rated health and fewer physical limitations in the Health and Retirement Study. Using similarly structured data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (N = 953), the current study found results largely consistent with the original study such that partner conscientiousness predicted both self-rated health and physical limitations, and husbands’ conscientiousness and neuroticism interacted when predicting wives’ self-rated health. A discussion of the usefulness of statistical significance versus effect size in replication follows.