In any TV show, it’s easy to see dramatic fights between spouses or between parents and their kids. While the television industry aims to make these arguments as dramatic as possible to the point of being unrealistic, realistically it might not be a bad idea for kids to experience fighting within the household according to this study.

Two researchers (one of them, Denise Solomon, from Penn State!) in a new study decided to investigate this idea that there could be a link between children who experience verbal conflicts in the house and how they handle conflicts in their relationships as an adult. The researchers chose 50 couples and took coritsol measurements through saliva samples before, during, and after the experiment. Cortisol is called the “stress hormone” and is primarily active during a “fight or flight” response, but if the body doesn’t get a chance to have a relax response high cortisol levels could have health consequences (abouthealth.com). Saliva samples were taken before when the couples were separated individually and interviewed about their current relationships and exposure to verbal aggression as a child. Next, the couple was brought into a room where they had to discuss “an area of conflict” for 10 minutes. The researchers left the couples alone, videotaped the session, and then took saliva samplings twice in the following 20 minutes. Professionals came in to rate the intensity of the fight as seen on the video tapes and the cortisol levels were then calculated.

The study found that “the more intense the conflict interaction was rated between the couples the stronger the physiological stress response to the conflict” (sciencedaily.com). Basically the worse the fight, the worse the resulting stress. This seems like a no-brainer. But for people who had been used to fighting in households, they knew how to handle conflicts and what they should do to cause the least amount of damage to their relationships.

Right off the bat, I think this study is really awkward. The researchers basically made couples fight then watched it on video to see if it was a really bad one or not. Maybe that vibe threw off some of the subjects in the study, but I think that measuring cortisol is a good, concrete way to measure each person’s reaction. Also, testing the cortisol levels before the “consultations” acts as a control. If someone wanted to leave because they felt this situation was weird, triggering their “flight” response, this may make their control unreliable. Lastly, could other third variables come into play? Did all the couples have the same sexual orientation, or were the couples both hetero- and homosexual? And perhaps age could also play into it, since older couples would have more experience dealing with fights or might have more to fight about.

Other things I noticed were that there were only 50 couples, so a future study might need to be expanded. And also, I would like to know how the researchers defined household. Did the people with lower cortisol levels see aggressive verbal fights between siblings or between parents, or did they participate in them for themselves?

Overall, I think the findings in this study are interesting, but it reminds me that correlation does not equal causation. I personally think I can deal with arguments, and my parents never aggressively fought in front of me (although I do sometimes fight with my siblings…). However, after reading this I don’t think I would go and watch family members fight for future benefits.