Compatibility in personalities and non-cognitive skills, problem gambling and relationship dissolution in Australia

Relationship dissolution affects wellbeing, particularly that of children. We jointly model the duration of relationships and time to birth of children for 10,827 partnered women over twenty
years in Australia, focusing on personality, non-cognitive skills and the risk of problem gambling.

We apply Simulated Maximum Likelihood to a bi-variate duration model incorporating nonparametric duration dependence, time-varying covariates, unobserved heterogeneity and
correlation between outcomes. Less agreeable, less conscientious or more emotionally unstable individuals have relationships which last less long than others. External locus of control, partner
mismatch and problem gambling all contribute to shorter relationships.