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In A Nutshell
- Nearly two-thirds of American adults report at least one difficult childhood experience, and a new study of 212 couples links that history to adult relationship struggles.
- Childhood adversity did not directly hurt relationship satisfaction; instead it was connected to higher anxiety, depression, and loneliness in adulthood.
- Those psychological symptoms were tied to weaker everyday habits, like checking in, sharing, managing conflict, and showing affection, that keep relationships steady.
- Women’s childhood adversity was indirectly linked to how satisfied their male partners felt; men’s histories showed no matching cross-partner connection.
Nearly two out of three American adults report at least one difficult experience from childhood, things like abuse, neglect, or a parent’s divorce, and roughly one in six report four or more. New research on 212 couples suggests early hardship may remain connected to adult relationships decades later, through anxiety, depression, loneliness, and difficulties maintaining everyday relationship habits.
Researchers at the University of Georgia analyzed survey data from couples enrolled in a relationship education program, publishing results in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, and found that childhood adversity did not directly predict how satisfied people were in their adult relationships. Instead, the data pointed to a quieter chain reaction familiar to a huge share of the population: more adversity growing up was linked to more anxiety, depression, and loneliness as adults, and those symptoms were tied to weaker versions of the everyday habits that keep a relationship steady.
Gender added a wrinkle to the pattern. Women’s childhood adversity was tied to how satisfied their male partners felt, through a chain of psychological and relational effects; men’s histories did not show that same cross-partner connection. Researchers say the pattern points to relationship maintenance, the small, repeated acts of care partners show each other, as a skill worth strengthening even when the wounds started long before the relationship did.
Childhood Adversity and Relationships: Study Analyzes 212 Couples
Data came from a larger federally funded evaluation of a relationship education program in Georgia called ELEVATE. Out of 440 couples who originally enrolled, the final analysis included 212 different-sex couples, both partners included, who completed a survey before the program began and a second survey several months later. Couples had to be over 18, in a committed relationship, and living in Georgia. About 79 percent were married and the rest unmarried but committed, together for nearly 13 years on average.
Participants answered questions about 14 potentially traumatic childhood experiences, using a scale asking things like whether a parent or guardian regularly humiliated them or left them without enough food or protection. They also reported current anxiety, depression, and loneliness, along with how often they engaged in relationship maintenance behaviors, and rated overall relationship quality by agreeing or disagreeing with statements like whether their relationship made them happy.
Men in the sample reported an average of about 2.5 childhood adverse experiences, while women reported closer to 3.4, a gap too large to chalk up to chance. Roughly 30 percent of men and 41 percent of women reported four or more, a category earlier research has linked to greater long-term health risks. Researchers used statistical modeling to trace how each partner’s adversity connected to their own symptoms and skills, as well as to their partner’s satisfaction, though the design cannot separate what happened first, so the results describe a connected pattern rather than proof of cause and effect.
Childhood Adversity Linked to Psychological Distress, Not Direct Relationship Harm
That anxiety, depression, and loneliness, not the adversity itself, were associated with weaker relationship maintenance and, for men specifically, lower relationship satisfaction directly. For women, the same symptoms were mainly linked to weaker maintenance behaviors, which in turn were tied to lower satisfaction rather than affecting it directly.
Underlying that pattern is a set of everyday habits researchers grouped into four categories: staying current on a partner’s stresses, sharing meaningful conversation, managing conflict constructively, and showing physical affection. Childhood adversity was linked to weaker versions of these behaviors rather than to a relationship’s foundation directly, which may help explain how childhood adversity and relationship satisfaction were connected in the researchers’ model.
Women’s Childhood Adversity Linked to Partner’s Happiness Too
Partner effects told a more uneven story. Women’s childhood adversity was indirectly linked with their male partners’ satisfaction, connected through women’s own psychological symptoms and reduced relationship-maintenance skills, not through any direct line between women’s history and men’s happiness. Men’s childhood adversity was not linked to their partners’ relationship quality through that same pathway. Researchers connect the asymmetry to broader patterns in relationship research: women tend to shoulder more emotional labor sustaining a partnership, though the study did not measure that labor directly, so the explanation remains one plausible reading rather than a proven mechanism. The study leans on an established relationship theory that describes relationship maintenance as “the primary mechanism underlying stress and resilience in close relationships.”
Practical takeaways center on relationship maintenance as a target worth strengthening. Couples counseling and low-cost relationship education programs, several free through federal family programming, teach these same behaviors, and practitioners are encouraged to build trust first with couples whose early relationships taught the opposite lesson.
Childhood does not have to dictate the terms of an adult relationship, but this research suggests it does not simply disappear either. For millions of adults carrying some version of that history, and for their partners, the findings suggest daily acts of care may offer something concrete to work on, even if practicing them cannot undo where the strain began.
Disclaimer: This article summarizes findings from a single peer-reviewed study for general informational purposes and is not medical, psychological, or relationship therapy advice. Individuals affected by childhood adversity or relationship difficulties should consult a licensed therapist or counselor for guidance specific to their situation.
Paper Notes
Limitations
This study relied on a cross-sectional design, meaning childhood adversity and current relationship measures were captured without tracking changes over years, which limits any claim that adversity directly causes later relationship problems. Nearly half of couples originally enrolled were excluded because one or both partners did not complete both survey waves, raising the possibility that results skew toward more stable, motivated couples. Adversity was self-reported retrospectively, a method prone to underreporting, and only counted whether an experience happened rather than how often or how severely it affected someone. Same-sex couples were excluded due to sample size and analysis requirements, so findings may not generalize beyond heterosexual pairings. Finally, participants self-selected into a relationship education program, meaning the sample likely reported unusually low psychological distress and high relationship satisfaction compared with the general population, which may limit generalizability to higher-risk couples.
Funding and Disclosures
This research was funded by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, through Grants 90ZB0010 and 90FM0081. Opinions expressed in the study are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agency. Authors reported no conflicts of interest.
Publication Details
Study title: “Adverse Childhood Experiences, Psychosocial Problems, and Relationship Quality in Romantic Couples: Relationship Maintenance Skills as an Interpersonal Resource.” Authors: Analisa Arroyo, Evin W. Richardson, Ted G. Futris, Rachel A. Brown, and Abigail S. Gilbert, affiliated with the University of Georgia. Published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 2026. DOI: 10.1177/02654075261445143.
