Frequent Travel Takes Toll on Spouses

March 15 -- Chris Essex knows all about the resentment factor.

Her husband of 25 years is a million-mile flier on United Airlines. And it's not so much that she wishes she could be travelling with him — it's that she doesn't like it when he's away.

Essex may be something of an expert when it comes to coping with a traveling spouse, since she serves as co-director for the Center for Work and the Family in Rockville, Md., an organization that helps people bridge the gaps between life at work and life at home.

But like millions of other spouses whose partner's frequent business travel can leave behind an emotional and practical void, she still resents the extra burdens that with come with her husband's absence.

"It happened recently with my husband — he forgot something and he needed it FedExed to him," Essex explains. "For me the resentment factor was this instant flash point of 'That's not okay with me, because not only are you not here, which causes a loss of assistance — but now you require something from me to support you being away.'"

More people could be affected by the "resentment factor" than you might imagine.

Fourteen million Americans travel internationally on business each year, according to estimates by HTH Worldwide, a health insurance provider to international travelers. Five trips per year is the average, with an average stay of nearly two weeks.

And some experts say that the same problems may extend to the spouses of those who travel domestically each year. That's 34.2 million Americans, with the vast majority involving an overnight stay lasting an average of four nights, estimates the Travel Industry Association of America.

Ill Effects for Stay-at-home Spouse

In fact, the stress of spousal travel may actually be making some the stay-at-home partner sick.

Research into the effects of international travel on the spouse or partner has largely been anecdotal. But a recent study in the March issue of Occupational and Environmental Medicine provides some documented proof that you don't need to be on the road to be weary.