Conflict and Negative Health Effects

Relationships, which are often a source of comfort and support and can buffer the negative effects of stress, can also be a source of stress themselves. As such, it is logical that the quality and quantity of social relationships is consistently associated with individual health and well-being. One specific way in which this relationship is demonstrated is the enduring and clear negative effect of interpersonal conflict behaviors on physical and mental health. The bulk of this research has been conducted on marital partners and focuses on marital quality, which is the global assessment of marriage according to a number of different dimensions. Interpersonal conflict is considered to be one of the dimensions that characterizes low marital quality. This robust link between conflict and health has ...