How Not to Hate Your Husband After Kids

“But even if your mate seems oblivious, he may be detecting your wrath on a subconscious level. A University of Southern California study that observed married couples over several days found that if a mother was stressed, the father’s levels of the stress hormone cortisol would also rise—that, in effect, families “sync up” stress levels. Specifica... See more

“Darby Saxbe, a psychology professor at the University of Southern California, explains to me that couples often fall into a pattern of demand and retreat—most often, the woman demands and the man retreats. This dynamic has arisen, she says, because men have less to gain by changing their behavior, while women are more likely to want to alter the s... See more

“Even when they are asleep, infants as young as six months react negatively to angry, argumentative voices, as University of Oregon researchers discovered by measuring brain activity of babies in the presence of steadily rising voices. Babies raised by unhappily married parents have been shown to have a host of developmental problems, from delayed ... See more