Women find it harder to use the latest technology more often than men, but certainly  know how to use it when it comes to spying on their partners, a study claims.

Around 14per cent of women spy on their husband's emails, 13per cent on their text messages and 10per cent check their internet browser logs.

The study of British middle-aged couples found they are roughly twice as likely to spy on their spouses than their husbands.

Women are also far better at using technology to find out what their partners are up to than men, say researchers.

And it appears that some women develop their IT skills purely to improve their surveillance techniques.

'One of the surprising findings was that spousal surveillance was undertaken more often by wives than husbands,' said Ellen Helsper of the London School of Economics and Monica Whitty of Nottingham Trent University, who co-authored the research.

'This contrasts with general research that suggests that women are less technologically skilled than men.

'It seems that they are able to overcome these barriers when they feel that their relationship is at stake.'

The researchers analysed how the internet affected long-term relationships and whether couples used it to spy on each other.

They questioned 920 couples with an average age of 49 who had typically been married for about two decades.

The researchers added: 'The findings show that wives were indeed more likely to monitor their husbands’ behaviour.'

By Daily Mail