Gender Differences in Variability of Intimate Relationship Satisfaction in a Multinational Sample

To evaluate potential gender differences in relationship satisfaction between women and men, researchers have generally focused on gender differences in mean levels of relationship satisfaction. In comparison, the present study was conducted to evaluate gender differences in the distribution (i.e., variability) of relationship satisfaction scores by examining (a) variance ratios (i.e., variance of women’s relationship satisfaction scores divided by men’s scores) and (b) tail ratios (i.e., ratio of the relative proportion of women divided by the relative proportion of men in the distributional tail regions). Results from a large, multinational sample of married individuals recruited from 33 countries (N = 7,178) spanning five continents indicated that compared to men, (a) women reported greater variability in relationship satisfaction (variance ratio = 1.25) and (b) women predominated in the lower tail of the distribution of relationship satisfaction scores. These results support the greater female variability hypothesis of relationship satisfaction and underscore the need for research to better understand why compared to men, women’s relationship satisfaction scores show greater variability or dispersion at lower levels of satisfaction.