For women, marital distress means less relief from stress

The article “For women, marital distress means less relief from stress”, explains how married women’s cortisol, a hormone secreted when people feel stress, changes in their daily lives. It says, almost all people have higher level of cortisol when they wake up, so happily married women’s cortisol levels fluctuate during the day because they are helped by their husbands or children when they return home from work. On the other hand, unhappily married women can’t get help from anybody, but instead have more stress from relationship problems or taking care of children, and therefore more cortisol secretion, and no subsequent decline in stress. The research supporting the article is revolutionary in its method of data collection, being the first to observe married couples in their real routines. The article also points out that the research is incomplete and not a determinate means of linking marital satisfaction with cortisol release.

For women, marital distress means less relief from stress. (2008, January 6). Science Daily. Retrieved on January 23, 2008. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080101093852.htm