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# Relationship Strife Hard on Men
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/relationship_strife_hard_on_men_0611101001/
- Published: 2010-06-11T10:55:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-15T12:51:25.000Z
- Description: Robin Simon and Anne Barrett report in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior that men suffer more during a relationship's rough patches and gain more from a good one, while women take breakups harder and are likelier to become depressed afterwards.
- Author: Rachel Stockton
- Tags: Lifestyle, Health News, #vivvo-import

The results of a new study being published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior may come as a surprise to some. Co-authors Robin Simon (Wake Forest University) and Anne Barrett (Florida State University) conducted research on male and female emotional responses in romantic relationships.

They found that while it is true that women have a more difficult time after a breakup, men are more vulnerable during the inevitable rough patches that can occur in a relationship. Simon and Barrett also found that men in the study got more of an emotional lift when they were in a healthy relationship than women do.

Another gender difference: while women are more likely to become depressed after a breakup, men are more likely to respond to turbulent times through substance abuse and aggression.

In other relationship news, the New York Times recently reported on research regarding marital longevity performed by Dr. Bianca Acevedo, a researcher from the University of California Santa Barbara. In one clinical trial, couples who had been married for at least 21 years were shown pictures of their spouses and two of their friends while researchers studied their brain scans. Their scans were then compared to younger couples’ who had just fallen in love and had previously taken the same test.

When the older couples were shown pictures of their spouses, certain parts of the brain that are associated with romantic love were activated, just as they had been in those who had just fallen in love. And, interestingly, the older couples’ scans also showed activity in the area of the brain associated with deep attachment.

Bottom line? According to Dr. Acevedo, the good news is that romantic love and deep attachment aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive.