The University of Michigan study studied 192 couples over 17 years and placed the couples into one of four categories: both partners communicate their anger; husband expresses while the wife suppresses; the wife expresses and the husband suppresses; and both the husband and wife suppress their anger and brood.
Ernest Harburg, a professor emeritus with the University of Michigan School of Public Health, said when both spouses suppress their anger at the other when unfairly attacked, earlier death was twice as likely than in all other types.
"When couples get together, one of their main jobs is reconciliation about conflict," Harburg said in a statement. "Usually nobody is trained to do this. If they have good parents, they can imitate, that's fine, but usually the couple is ignorant about the process of resolving conflict."
Those who bury anger, brood over it and resent the other person and don't try to resolve the problem, can be in trouble, Harburg said.
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