Study claims women are the most difficult family members to live with

[Photo: from VCG]

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and Bar-Ilan University in Israel have discovered an inconvenient truth about our female family members.

According to a survey of 1,100 respondents who described more than 12,000 relationships, wives, sisters and mothers are more likely to be the most difficult people in our lives.

Women may be guilty of doing the lion's share of whining, nagging and controlling in relationships, but the study noted that it's for a good reason.

Female family members were most often labeled as difficult because they're usually emotionally invested in relatives' lives.

The respondents included people ranging in age from their early 20s to their 70s, all of which were San Francisco Bay Area residents. More than half of respondents were female.

Claude Fischer, a senior author of the study said: 'The message here is that, with female relatives, it can be a two-sided thing.' 'They may be the people you most depend on, but also the people who nag you the most.' Fischer said: 'It's a testament to their deeper engagement in social ties.'

Overall, respondents said they considered about 15% of their relationships to be difficult.

Siblings, spouses, aging parents and colleagues were also lumped into the 'difficult' category, though next of kin were considered more annoying.

Friends, meanwhile, were least likely to be difficult, accounting for roughly 7% of respondents 'annoying' relationships.

This seems to demonstrate why we often can't just these difficult people from our lives. 

[The audio clip is from Studio+, produced by CRI] 

(News source: Daily Maily)