Mental Health

Passionate Support In Marital Relationships Might Bother Husbands, A New Study Discovers

By Bisma Kaleem | Update Date: Nov 02, 2015 12:10 PM EST

Do you often feel groggy and irritated when asked to provide emotional support to dampen your wife's current state of mind? Are you mostly reluctant by the thought of reassuring and offering genuine moral support to your partner’s unquestionable temperament? If yes, then here's a bit of a loose cannon as scientists have a rather interesting theory for the above mentioned situations.

Published in the Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences & Social Sciences, researchers have claimed that while women are inclined to accumulate positive responses when feeling down, men on the other hand, feel frustrated when giving and receiving emotional support.

The research was initiated by Prof. Deborah Carr - of the Department of Sociology, School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ in which they surveyed 772 couples who had been married for an average of 39 years.

They were asked about their everyday marital concerns and were also interviewed regarding the way the couple deal with the issues. Husbands and wives were analyzed on their personal experiences and whether the inclusive marriage experience does justice to them or not. They were even rendered with questions in which they were asked whether their spouse is more helpful and supportive on various issues and acts as confidants or not.

The results were pretty fascinating as husbands communicated their views which reflected on their marriage as a sign of positivity including aspects of higher quality. Other than that, they also claimed to have more emotional support than their wives.

However, husband's association of frustration saw a sudden increase when they mentioned that they gave and receive emotional support to their spouse.

"Men who provide high levels of support to their wives may feel this frustration if they believe that they would rather be focusing their energies on another activity," notes Prof. Carr.

The research did not halt here as based on the results, the researchers are willing to dig deeper particularly for the younger couples. For them, the linkage of their respective frustration with giving and receiving emotional support is yet to be addressed and still remains a question.

Furthermore, the research well explains the casual relationship between the married couples and maintains a solid ground to revamp their personal links to deal with the issues.

 

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