Background Research

Buunk (1982) found that communication is positively related to marital satisfaction whereas avoidance is negatively related to it.
Janice L. Francis (1977) reached a similar conclusion when she identified the development of communication skills as the appropriate treatment mode for sexual jealousy.

Peter Salovey and Judith Rodin (1985) found that selective ignoring, defined as simply deciding that the desired object is not that important, is a coping strategy used by some. This is evidence that some people cope with jealousy by devaluing their relationship.

Many studies of jealousy do not investigate the extreme techniques of coping with jealousy such as the use of physical force or homicide, however studies of family violence leave little doubt that they occur frequently: Martin Daly, Margo Wilson, and Suzanne Weghorst (1982) reviewed several studies of spousal homicide that used data beyond those found in police files and concluded that male sexual jealousy may be a major source of conflict in an overwhelming majority of spousal homicides in North America.