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Early and current factors associated with poor-quality marriage

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Summary

In a general population series and a psychiatric patient series women with bad and good marriages were compared. A number of significant differences emerged. The women with bad marriages reported more behaviour disturbances in childhood and tended to come from larger sibships. They had poorer relationships with their mothers if early separated and poorer relationships with their replacement mothers if early bereaved. In adult life the women with bad marriages had shorter periods of courtship and married excessively older or younger men. They were more likely to have had two or more children in the first 4 years of marriage, and to have a poor current relationship with their mother. They had a restricted social life and were more inclined to be the dominant partner.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MRC Social Psychiatry Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, London, England

    John Birtchnell & John Kennard

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  1. John Birtchnell
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  2. John Kennard
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Birtchnell, J., Kennard, J. Early and current factors associated with poor-quality marriage. Soc Psychiatry 19, 31–40 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00583859

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