Passive agressive

[cheapskatemum]

After reading a recent thread on here and then a link about passive aggressive behaviour, I think a friend of mine is exhibiting some of the signs as a way of coping with their partner's behaviour. Is it possible to become passive aggressive as a mature adult, or is it always due to childhood experience?

Any learned behaviour can be learned at any stage of your life. Obviously, a lot of personality habits are learned early but, if your friend finds herself in a stressful environment and hasn't experienced it before, her way of dealing with it may be pretty recent.

Thanks, CES, not that recent in this case as they've been married 34 years, but later than childhood anyway. He would say the environment's only stressful when she's in it. She acknowledges that when she cuts him more slack, he draws closer, but can't seem to enact that for more than a few hours. He's moving his stuff out of the family home before telling her tomorrow (when she gets back from her week's stay with relatives) that he's leaving. I'm just gutted for the pair of them.