Your marriage and your health

Back in the 80s, scientists at Cal Berkeley began a laboratory study of married couples (not like Kinsey, I might add). The couples, who had been married at least 15 years, were asked to talk for 15 minutes about their days, followed by another 15 minutes in which they were told to rehash areas of ongoing contention in their relationships—in other words, to argue. All sessions were recorded on video. The couples also completed detailed questionnaires about their health. Every five years, for at least 20 years, the couples returned to the lab and repeated the drill: discussion, argument, health report.

In studying the couples’ interactions, scientists examined facial expressions and voices, taking note of the emotions shown by the test subjects during arguments. For example, when angry, people’s eyebrows lower, their eyes widen, lips compress, and voice volume increases. The researchers then compared the subjects’ emotions with their health questionnaires. Here is what they learned:

Over the years, spouses, especially husbands, who seethed with anger while arguing were much more likely than calmer spouses to report symptoms of cardiac problems, such as chest pain or high blood pressure. Spouses who stonewalled (refused to respond) were more prone than others to develop muscular problems such as back pain. Interestingly, angry spouses rarely developed back pain and stonewallers rarely reported cardiac symptoms. People whose main response to conflict was sadness or fear did not report many cardiac or musculoskeletal problems at all.

I don’t know whether the fear/sadness people developed some characteristic health problems. I wasn’t willing to pay $11.95 to get the full journal article (Emotion, May, 2016) to find out. My guess is that their health issues were all over the map.

For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.