Predictors of heavy drinking and drinking problems over the first 4 years of marriage.

Abstract

This study investigated the factors predictive of heavy drinking and drinking problems over the early years of marriage, focusing on the premarital drinking and relatively stable individual risk and protective factors that were present prior to marriage, and on social-interpersonal factors that may change or emerge over marriage. Newlywed couples were assessed at the time of marriage, and at the 1 st , 2 nd , and 4 th anniversaries with respect to frequency of heavy drinking and the extent of drinking problems, and a variety of factors that have been found to be predictive of adult alcohol problems. The results indicated that antisocial characteristics, family history of alcoholism, negative affect, and alcohol expectancies were related to heavy drinking and alcohol problems at the time of marriage. Changes after marriage were predicted by the drinking of one's partner and of one's peers and by alcohol expectancies for social/physical pleasure for both men and women. In addition, the quality of the marriage was longitudinally protective from the experience of alcohol problems for both men and women, although it was not related to changes in heavy drinking. KeywordsAlcohol Problems; Drinking Patterns; Marital Functioning; Partner Influence; Peer Influence Theoretical approaches to excessive drinking and alcohol problems have shifted from risk factor and person-environment interaction models to probabilistic-developmental models (e.g., Zucker, 2004) that incorporate person-environmental interactions into a broader developmental psychopathology approach (Windle & Davies, 1999). These models emphasize an array of biological, psychological, and social processes, sometimes acting in concert and sometimes in opposition to each other. This model argues that alcohol use and alcohol problems both affect and are affected by maturational processes and phase-specific transitional events. As Zucker, Fitzgerald, and Moses (1995) (p. 686). From this perspective, understanding the development of heavy drinking and alcohol problems is fostered by focusing on transitional events, particularly those that introduce, remove, or reorganize the biological, psychological, or social influences on drinking.One of the most important psychosocial transitional events is marriage, an event experienced by more than 70% of men and women by age 35 (Fields, 2003). Marriage carries with it a variety of tasks that can fundamentally alter an individual's view of self, as well as how the broader social network behaves toward the individual and the couple. At the psychological level, there is often a marked shift away from more individualistic values and toward more interdependent and socially positive values, consistent with the adoption of the new role of spouse. There is also often a major reorganization of the social network involving the reestablishment or redefinition of ties, both as individuals and as a couple, with each member's extended family and peer network (Boss, 1983;McGoldrick & Carter, 1982).In addition to these psycho-socia...

Relationship-Specific Alcohol Expectancies in Couples With Concordant and Discrepant Drinking Patterns

“…Of those people who continue to drink heavily after the transition, there is a tendency for married partners to be concordant in terms of their heavy drinking (Labouvie, 1996;Leonard and Homish, 2008). This effect is not entirely surprising.…”

The Social Network and Alcohol Use

“…The focus of the current study is on a subset of the social network (i.e., drinking buddies) that has been shown to be predictive of both heavy drinking and alcohol problems in both men and women (Leonard and Homish, 2008). Given this relationship, it is reasonable to consider factors that are specifi c to alcohol use as possible predictors of changes in the composition of the social network as it relates to alcohol use.…”

“…In the midst of these reductions and reorganization of the social network, its infl uence may be substantially reduced. To determine if peer infl uence were prominent after the transition to marriage, Leonard and Homish (2008) examined the social network of newly married couples during the fi rst 4 years of marriage to determine if the number of drinking buddies were longitudinally predictive of heavy drinking and alcohol problems in men and women after controlling for a variety of individual, relationship, and sociodemographic factors. To allow for changes in the social network membership over time, the number of drinking buddies was modeled as a time-varying predictor.…”

Test of a Conceptual Model of Partner Aggression Among Women Entering Substance Use Disorder Treatment

“…Studies have shown that individuals with antisociality/generalized violence traits are prone to SUD problems (HoltzworthMunroe et al, 2000;Leonard and Homish, 2008;Walsh et al, 2010). This may be because those with higher levels of antisociality/generalized violence are more likely to engage in a broad range of socially deviant behaviors, including heavy drinking and other drug use.…”