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How couples cope with and interact around strong emotions might influence their overall health and, potentially, mortality. To learn more, researchers analyzed data on 192 couples (predominantly white, middle-class, Midwestern couples in their late 40s) who participated in the Life Events Change Study initiated in 1971.
The specific focus was on how coping with anger affects couples' mortality 32 years later. At baseline, participants were rated dimensionally on how much their anger-coping responses to several vignettes were expressive (typically blowing up, not feeling guilty or sorry, protesting) or suppressive (keeping it in, feeling guilty or sorry, just keeping quiet). At follow-up, individuals' coping styles per se did not correlate wi…