HHS HealthBeat (March 19, 2008)

Time together

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Does it seem like the more years you spend with your spouse, the more you bicker?

Kara Birditt of the University of Michigan found that in data on more than 800 adults ages 20 and older. She reported on her work, which was supported by the National Institutes of Health, at a meeting of the Gerontological Society of America.

Now, we’re not talking about flat hate. These are dislikes about day-to-day annoyances. So Birditt thinks the ambivalence of marriage is not necessarily a bad thing.

``It might be that spouses become more negative because they have lots of contact – more so than other relationships – and that they become more comfortable expressing their negative feelings over time.’’ (9 seconds)

Her advice – calm down, fight fair, no yelling, and don’t feel it’s all awful when things don’t always go right.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: March, 18 2008