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Marital Adjustment, Intimacy and Needs in Female Agoraphobics and Their Partners: A Controlled Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

W. A. Arrindell  and
P. M. G. Emmelkamp
W. A. Arrindell*
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Psychology, Academic Hospital of the State University of Groningen, O ostersingel 59, 9713 EZ Groningen, The Netherlands
P. M. G. Emmelkamp
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Psychology, Academic Hospital of the State University of Groningen, O ostersingel 59, 9713 EZ Groningen, The Netherlands
*
∗ Correspondence
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Extract

Female agoraphobics and their partners were compared with three groups of control couples (non-phobic female psychiatric patients and their husbands, maritally distressed couples, and happily married couples) on measures relating to marital adjustment, intimacy, and needs. Neither agoraphobics nor their partners rated their marriages as more maladjusted or unpleasant than non-phobic psychiatric patients or their partner controls. Instead, agoraphobics and their spouses were found to be more comparable to happily-married couples than to maritally-distressed controls. Non-phobic psychiatric patients and their partners were generally found to rate their marriages as being as distressing and unpleasant as those of maritally distressed controls.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 149 , Issue 5 , November 1986 , pp. 592 - 602
Copyright
Copyright © 1986 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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