Fretting in family life makes women more stressed

This is the conclusion drawn from the study of California University in Los Angeles (UCLA) on the rate of cortisol - a hormone closely related to stress - which was done with 30 couples in Los Angeles when participating into an effort-intensive activity: take care of children when both husband and wife work all day.

Darby E.Saxbe, head of research and a graduate student in psychology at UCLA, said: 'At least for women, people with happy marriages recover mentally after working easily. than. When they experienced a tiring day at work, their cortisol levels were much less than those with less happy family life. These unhappy women have regular levels of release cortisol, which suggests they recover less after daily stress. "

High cortisol rates are associated with a wide range of conditions including depression, chronic fatigue, and problems with relationships with people, the ability to adjust to poor social life, even cancer. letter.

Rena Repetti, a researcher and professor of psychology at UCLA, said: 'This is the first study to demonstrate the relationship between daily release rate of cortisol and happiness in the marriage of women. women, not men '.

This is only part of a large study done by UCLA - Sloan Center for Everyday Lives of Families (CELF) published in January in Health Psychology published by Americal Psychological Association. Adirienne Nishina, assistant professor of human development at the University of California at Davis, is the third author of the study.

CELF researchers have suggested that 60 middle-aged couples conduct a standardized assessment of their marital satisfaction. Every 2 or 3 days, they have to fill out a questionnaire about how they work, their days and how busy they are. 4 times a day (early in the morning, late in the morning, in the afternoon and in the evening) the UCLA course team will collect participants' saliva samples to analyze cortisol levels.

Cortisol is released by the adrenal gland, and is considered a reliable indicator of stress or recovery after stress in humans. Early cortisol rate is usually high and falls evenly throughout the day. The discontinuity of stressors will also stimulate the adrenal gland to release this hormone. The rate at which cortisol is reduced is thought to be related to health, the faster the reduction, the better health and vice versa.

Repetti said: 'Cortisol may be one of the pathways that cause stress to arise daily and continuously turn into physical and psychological health problems'.

In general, women with happy marriages have a higher reduction in cortisol than women with less happiness. As for men, no matter how their married life is, their cortisol rate is still surprisingly reduced after a hard day's work .

Additional research needs to understand exactly how marital satisfaction affects the body's response to stress. The authors believe that the natural tendency to escape social problems after a stressful day can help explain why happy men and women have significantly lower cortisol rates than women. not happy in family life.

'Poor women return home after a busy day. Instead of spending time resting, relaxing or being helped by her husband to clear the table, they just had to prepare dinner and pay attention to the children. They can return to a stressful condition according to their daily routine immediately. Perhaps for happy couples, family responsibility is shared more equally between husband and wife. The above situation only occurs when the wife has a hard working day at work. '

Previous research has investigated the impact of marital satisfaction on cortisol rates, but the CELF study for the first time examines the separate relationship between men and women. Most of the previous researchers stimulated a cortisol release reaction by exposing participants to stressors such as public speaking, or electrocution. In contrast, the CELF study follows the trail of family life when couples experience daily routines.

According to Repetti, 'previous research has found that men can increase their health and longevity through marriage, and women only achieve that when marriage is happy. This study is the first to consider the variability of the daily cortisol ratio, thereby seeing the specific way in which the quality of married life affects women, not men. '

' Prolonged unhappy marriage can create many everyday situations that make women face stress, their cortisol rate is dizzying. They are more tired and angry. Just like driving in a state of continuous travel and stop. You have to step on the accelerator pedal and the brake pedal incessantly, keep on the accelerator and brake again, gradually you have created a less sure reflex. You don't stop and don't accelerate quickly; and also not recovering from this state easily '.