Marital negativity’s festering wounds: The emotional, immunological, and relational toll of couples’ negative communication patterns

Abstract

BackgroundDyadic stress theories and research suggest that couples’ negative communication patterns threaten immune and emotional health, leaving partners vulnerable to illness. Spouses’ relationship perceptions can also color how they see and react to marital discussions. To identify pathways linking distressed marriages to poor health, this study examined how self-reported typical communication patterns augmented discussion-based behavioral effects on spouses’ blister wound healing, emotions, and discussion evaluations. MethodsMarried couples completed two 24-hour in-person visits where they had their blood drawn to measure baseline interleukin-6 (IL-6), received suction blister wounds, reported their typical communication patterns (demand/withdraw strategies, mutual discussion avoidance, mutual constructive communication), and engaged in marital discussions. Discussions were recorded and coded for positive and negative behaviors using the Rapid Marital Interaction Coding System (RMICS). Immediately after the discussions, spouses rated their emotions and evaluated the discussion tone and outcome. Wound healing was measured for 12 days. ResultsCouples who reported typically using more demand/withdraw or mutual avoidance patterns had higher baseline IL-6, slower wound healing, greater negative emotion, lower positive emotion, and poorer discussion evaluations. In contrast, couples reporting more mutual constructive patterns reported more favorable discussion evaluations. Additionally, couples’ more negative and less positive patterns exacerbated behavioral effects: Spouses had wounds that healed more slowly, reported lower positive emotion, and evaluated the discussions less positively if their typical patterns and discussion-based behaviors were more negative and less positive. ConclusionsCouples’ typical communication patterns—including how often they use demand/withdraw, mutual avoidance, and mutual constructive patterns—may color spouses’ reactions to marital discussions, amplifying the biological, emotional, and relational impact. These findings help explain how distressed marriages take a toll on spouses’ health.