Marital relationships and spinal cord injury.

A questionnaire study of 122 married individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) revealed a number of differences between the marriages that took place after the onset of disability and those that had occurred earlier. The two groups were equivalent in terms of severity and duration of disability, but those married before SCI were older. ANCOVA was used in most analyses to control for age at the time of injury and at present. Those married after injury reported greater satisfaction with their sex lives, living arrangements, social lives, health, emotional adjustment, and control over their lives, and they indicated that loneliness was less of a problem. They were also far more likely to be working and to be socially active outside their homes.