TELEVISED SPORTS AND MARITAL RELATIONSHIPS

This paper describes tile role of televised sports in married life, It documents how adults integrate televised sports into their relationsh ip with their spouse and evaluate its impact on that relationship. Tel ephone interviews were conducted with 399 married adults residing in S an Francisco and Indianapolis. Respondents were asked about their own TV sports viewing behaviors as well as those of their spouse. Televise d sports appears to play a generally positive albeit small role in mar ital life. TV sports viewing often is a shared activity and does not a ppear to trigger many scheduling or TV viewing conflicts. And, when su ch conflicts occur, they appear to de resolved amicably and easily, It may be that accommodations for differing interests in TV sports are r esolved early in a marital relationship, along with other accommodatio ns that marriage often dictates.