Alcohol dependence is a strong predictor of later marriage and earlier separation, said researchers who studied over 5,000 Australian twins of various ages.
You can read how lead author Dr Mary Waldron, an assistant professor at the Indiana University School of Education in Bloomington, and also of the Midwest Alcoholism Research Center, Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, Missouri, and colleagues arrived at these findings in the 18 January online early view of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
Waldron and colleagues wrote in their background information that although there is a lot of published research on the links between drinking behavior and marital status, there is little empirical evidence on how it might affect the timing or duration of marriage.
“Previous research documented associations between adolescent substance use and early marriage or cohabitation, but much of this work did not follow participants past their 20s,” Waldron told the press.
So they decided to investigate this further by conducting a study of first marriages and how their timing and duration related to a lifetime history of alcohol dependence in a group of 3,575 female and 1,845 male adult Australian twins born mostly between 1940 and 1964.
They recruited the participants in the early 1980s, and assessed psychological and physical symptoms of alcohol use, and where applicable, what age they became dependent on it. The subjects were between 28 and 92 years old at their final assessment, when the researchers also noted, where applicable, how old they were when they first got married and when they separated.
When they analyzed the results, the researchers found that:
- “Moderate” delays in marriage were linked with alcohol dependence for both men and women.
- Among participants who had ever married, alcohol dependence was strongly predictive of early separation, with men and women showing similar patterns.
- Genetic influences appeared to contribute to these links, for both men and women.
- For women, there were genetic influences between early onset of alcohol dependence and timing of first marriage.
- For women, genetic influences common to alcohol dependence and duration of marriage were there regardless of when they became alcohol dependent, whereas for men, this was only apparent for later onset of alcohol dependence.
Waldron and colleagues concluded that their results confirmed the importance of alcohol dependence “as a predictor of both timing and survival of first marriages, with genetic influences contributing to observed associations”.
Waldron cautioned that while genetic influences appear to be important, more studies are needed before we can fully understand the role that genes might play, and how they interact with environment to produce any effects, in this area.
Nevertheless, even without further studies, these results highlight how alcoholism impacts more than just the person with the drinking problem:
“Young adults who drink alcohol may want to consider the longer-term consequences for marriage,” said Waldron.
“If drinking continues or increases to levels of problem use, likelihood of marriage, or of having a lasting marriage, may decrease,” she warned.
“Alcoholic Marriage: Later Start, Sooner End.”
Mary Waldron, Andrew C. Heath, Michael T. Lynskey, Kathleen K. Bucholz, Pamela A. F. Madden and Nicholas G. Martin.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1530-0277.2010.01381.x
Additional source: School of Education, Indiana University (press release, 18 Jan 2011).
Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD