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

美国加州大学伯克利分校和以色列巴伊兰大学的研究人员发现了一个和女性家庭成员有关的难以忽视的真相。

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

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.

'The message here is that, with female relatives, it can be a two-sided thing,' said Claude Fischer, a senior author of the study.

'They may be the people you most depend on, but also the people who nag you the most.'

'It's a testament to their deeper engagement in social ties,' Fischer added.