Am J Psychiatry 1987; 144:567-572
Copyright © 1987 by American Psychiatric Association
Sources of conflict in the medical marriage
GO Gabbard, RW Menninger and L Coyne
The authors surveyed a sample of 134 physicians and 125 physicians' spouses
regarding marital satisfaction, sources of marital conflict, and complaints
about their spouses. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the number of hours
at work did not relate to the degree of marital satisfaction. The chief
sources of conflict in the medical marriage appear to revolve around
differences in the partners' needs for intimacy, perceptions of the
problems in the marital relationship and in each other, and communication
styles. Lack of time due to the demands of practice seems to be a complaint
that serves the function of externalizing the conflicts in the marriage
onto factors outside the marriage.
