Heavy Drinking Only Mixes with Marriage if Both Spouses are at the Bar

After following more than 600 newlywed couples for nine years, researchers from State University of New York at Buffalo found that drinking only mixes with marriage if both spouses are at the bar.

In marriages where only one spouse was a heavy drinker, the researchers documented a much higher rate of divorce than in other couples. If both spouses were heavy drinkers, the divorce rate was about the same as that from couples where neither spouse drank heavily. The study defined "heavy drinking" as having six or more drinks at one time or drinking until intoxication.

"Our results indicate that it is the difference between the couple's drinking habits, rather than the drinking itself, that leads to marital dissatisfaction, separation and divorce," said Kenneth Leonard, lead author of the research, which will be published in the December issue of Psychology of Addictive Behaviors.

Nearly 50 percent of married couples where only one spouse was a heavy drinker were divorced by their ninth anniversary, Leonard and his colleagues found. When the wife was the spouse who drank heavily the divorce rate was slightly higher than it was in cases where the husband was the heavy drinker, although the difference between the two was so small Leonard did not consider it statistically significant.

For couples where both spouses either drank heavily or not very much, the divorce rate after nine years was about 30 percent.

"This research provides solid evidence to bolster the commonplace notion that heavy drinking by one partner can lead to divorce," Leonard said. "Although some people might think that's a likely outcome, there was surprisingly little data to back up that claim until now."

Leonard said that the most surprising outcome of the research was that the divorce rate for two heavy drinkers was no worse than for two non-heavy drinkers.

"Heavy drinking spouses may be more tolerant of negative experiences related to alcohol due to their own drinking habits," he said. Although Leonard noted that other aspects of family life were not necessarily unimpaired. "While two heavy drinkers may not divorce, they may create a particularly bad climate for their children."

The study controlled for other factors such as marijuana and tobacco use, socioeconomic status and depression, which can also be associated with marital dissatisfaction and divorce.

"Ultimately, we hope our findings will be helpful to marriage therapists and mental health practitioners who can explore whether a difference in drinking habits is causing conflicts between couples seeking help," Leonard said.