Husbands' and wives' alcohol use disorders and marital interactions as longitudinal predictors of marital adjustment.

Abstract

This longitudinal study tested the hypothesis that marital interactions mediate the associations between wives’ and husbands’ lifetime alcoholism status and their subsequent marital adjustment. Participants were 105 couples from the Michigan Longitudinal Study (MLS), an ongoing multimethod investigation of substance use in a community-based sample of alcoholics, nonalcoholics, and their families. At baseline (T1), husbands and wives completed a series of diagnostic measures and lifetime DSM-IV diagnosis of alcohol use disorder (AUD) was assessed. Couples completed a problem-solving marital interaction task 3 years later at T2, which was coded for the ratio of positive to negative behaviors (P/N) was calculated. Couples also completed the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS; Spanier, 1976) at T4 (9 years after T1 and 6 years after T2). Moderate to strong positive correlations were observed between husbands’ and wives’ lifetime AUD, P/N ratio, and dyadic adjustment. Based on an Actor-Partner Independence Model (APIM) framework, results from structural equation modeling showed that husbands’ lifetime AUD was negatively associated with wives’ P/N ratio at the 3 year point, but was not related to their own or their wives’ marital adjustment 9 years from baseline. However, wives’ lifetime AUD had direct negative associations with their own and their husband’s marital satisfaction 9 years later, and wives’ P/N ratio was positively related to their own and their husband’s marital satisfaction 6 years later. Results indicate that marital adjustment in alcoholic couples may be driven more by the wives’ than the husbands’ AUD and marital behavior.

Alcoholism and Timing of Separation in Parents: Findings in a Midwestern Birth Cohort

“…Consistent with increased risk associated with maternal alcoholism during earlier versus later childhood, recent studies suggest that disordered drinking may have greater consequences for marital adjustment when the wife is alcoholic, instead of or in addition to her husband (e.g., Cranford et al, 2011), perhaps because of potentially greater incompatibility of problem drinking with the traditional role of wife as primary homemaker responsible for caretaking of both children and her spouse. Personality may also play a role, albeit distally, along with comorbid psychopathology either upstream or consequent to alcoholism, as rates of antisociality and depressive symptoms are elevated among individuals with alcohol and substance use disorders (Grant et al, 2004;Regier et al, 1990), with higher rates also observed among individuals who are divorced (Kessler et al, 1998).…”

DSM-IV Alcohol Dependence and Marital Dissolution: Evidence From the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions

“…Some results showed that female alcoholics had higher rates of co-occurring psychiatric disorders than did male alcoholics (see Nixon and Glenn, 1995), and female alcoholics reported higher rates of sexual dysfunction than did nonalcoholics (Wilsnack and Wilsnack, 1995). Other evidence showed that wives' (but not husbands') AUDs predicted their own and their husband's marital dissatisfaction (Cranford et al, 2011), and a study using behavioral observation methods found higher levels of negativity and lower levels of positivity in female alcoholic couples compared with male alcoholic and nonalcoholic couples (Haber and Jacob, 1997). Smith et al (2012b) found that various dimensions of alcohol involvement were associated with subsequent divorce in a sample of women.…”

“…Although the evidence for distinct marital interaction patterns between alcoholic and nonalcoholic couples is mixed (McCrady and Epstein, 1995), some evidence has shown that alcoholic couples display more negative and fewer positive behaviors during marital interaction tasks (e.g., Floyd et al, 2006;Jacob et al, 1981). AUD and alcohol involvement are associated with lower levels of marital satisfaction (Cranford et al, 2011;Marshal, 2003) and higher levels of intimate partner violence (Leonard, 2005;Leonard and Eiden, 2007;Murphy and O'Farrell, 1996), which is highly correlated with divorce (e.g., Sanchez and Gager, 2000). Infi delity was ranked as a common reason for divorce in several studies (e.g., Amato and Previti, 2003), and those with AUD are more likely to engage in extramarital sex (Hall et al, 2008).…”

“…In the context of the VSA model, alcoholism can be thought of as an enduring vulnerability characterized by high comorbidity with other substance use and psychiatric and personality disorders (Cranford et al, 2011;Grant et al, 2004aGrant et al, , 2004bHasin et al, 2007;Zucker, 2006;Zucker et al, 1995Zucker et al, , 2000, with a developmental course that varies as a function of interpersonal factors (Leonard and Eiden, 2007;Leonard and Homish, 2008;McAweeney et al, 2005;McCrady et al, 2009). For example, Bruce (1998, p. 221) suggested that "a history of psychopathology falls within the broad defi nition of 'enduring vulnerabilities' and may affect both the risk of acute or chronic stressors in a marriage as well as the capacity of the couple to adapt successfully to those stressors" (also see Johns et al, 2007).…”

“…Alcohol Drugs, 75, 520-529, 2014) Leonard and Rothbard (1999) noted that "perhaps because of the commonsense appeal that drinking causes marital problems and divorce, few studies have systematically addressed this issue" (p. 143). Although several studies have established linkages between AUD and indicators of marital quality (e.g., Cranford et al, 2011;Whisman, 2007;Whisman et al, 2006), few longitudinal studies have tested the hypothesis that AUD leads to marital dissolution (Chilcoat and Breslau, 1996;Smith et al, 2012b). High rates of comorbidity between AUD and other psychiatric disorders make it diffi cult to determine the relative importance of AUD as a predictor of marital dissolution.…”