A collaborative study by researchers at the University of Arizona, Tucson, and the University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, found that mixed-weight couples experience more conflict than do same-weight couples.
The study, involving 43 heterosexual couples, found that relationships of healthy-weight men and overweight women reported the most conflicts. When just the woman was healthy-weight, there was a normal amount of conflict in the relationship.
The scientists ran into a chicken-or-the-egg conundrum: Did conflict arise because the problem was one partner’s overweight condition, or did the stress of conflict cause one partner to eat more and become overweight?
Whatever the answer is, there’s one thing the researchers are clear about: Communication regarding weight problems must be framed in supportive and loving words, tones and facial expressions that let the persons with the problem know their partners are rooting for them.
Source: examiner.com, January 23, 2013 Study published in Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, December 2012
Humor certainly helps in all relationships. Our friend gave her husband a valentine’s card that read, “Our love is like the ocean, when I’m on the bottom-I can’t breath.”
Patrick–An excellent observation re. humor. Hat’s off to your friend’s use of it.
Carole