Marital quality and congruent drinking.
OBJECTIVE
This research considered whether changes in marital quality over the early years of marriage were related to patterns of alcohol use among three groups of couples: congruent nondrinkers, congruent drinkers who usually drank with their spouses and congruent drinkers who usually drank apart from their spouses.


METHODS
Newlywed couples (N = 418) were assessed for marital satisfaction and drinking behaviors and then were reassessed at their first and second anniversaries. Cross-sectional analyses compared couples at each assessment and multilevel modeling assessed changes in marital satisfaction over time.


RESULTS
At each assessment, husbands and wives who usually drank with their partners reported greater levels of marital satisfaction. Over time, marital satisfaction declined for both husbands and wives. When we assessed changes in marital quality based on the three groups, husbands in each group experienced similar declines in marital quality. Among wives, however, the rate of decline was not the same. Although wives in the nondrinking group and wives who usually drank with their husbands had similar initial marital satisfaction, the nondrinkers experienced a greater decline in marital satisfaction than the wives who drank with their husbands. The rate of change for the wives in the nondrinking group was quite similar to wives who more often drank apart from their spouses.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that alcohol use may be a part of the couple's socializing and may increase interaction, thereby increasing marital satisfaction.
Homish
Gregory G
GG
Research Institute on Addictions, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, 1021 Main Street, Buffalo, New York 14203-1016, USA. ghomish@ria.buffalo.edu
Leonard
Kenneth E
KE
D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D017004:Codependency, Psychological; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D012737:Sex Factors; D012919:Social Behavior; D018454:Spouses / Q000523:psychology