Using multiple methods to examine gender differences in alcohol involvement and marital interactions in alcoholic probands

Abstract

Background This study examined gender differences in alcohol involvement and marital interactions among probands with a past 1-year alcohol use disorder (AUD). Methods Adults with alcohol dependence (37 males and 17 females) and their spouses were recruited from a local substance abuse treatment center and from the local community. Couples completed a series of self-report measures and a 15-min videotaped marital interaction task that was coded for negative and positive behaviors and sequential interactions. Couples also separately called in to an interactive voice response (IVR) system every night for 14 consecutive nights and reported on their spouse’s negative and positive marital behaviors. Results Compared to male probands, female probands reported a) more negative marital interactions in the previous month; b) higher levels of negative reciprocity and a lower positive-to-negative ratio in the marital interaction task; and c) more daily and nightly marital conflict over the 14-day diary period. Negative marital behaviors in the evening by female spouses were associated with higher odds of intoxication among male probands on the following day. By contrast, a) negative marital behaviors by male spouses were cross-sectionally associated with higher odds of intoxication among female probands within the same day; and b) positive marital behaviors by male spouses during the day were associated with lower odds of intoxication among female probands that night. Conclusions Marital conflict, assessed via multiple methods over multiple time scales, appears to be more frequent among female compared to male alcoholics. Marital conflict predicts daily intoxication among male and female probands.

Patterns of Alcohol Consumption in Spanish University Alumni: Nine Years of Follow-Up

“…This finding is in line with previous studies reporting that a persistent drinking trajectory is associated with being separated, divorced or never married (Schulenberg et al, 1996 ; Hicks et al, 2010 ). However, in the case of males, there is no difference among clusters in having serious problems with their partner, a gender difference in line with some previous researches (Cranford et al, 2011 , 2015 ) that could be explained by the fact that alcohol consumption is part of the male gender role (Iwamoto and Smiler, 2013 ).…”

Relationship Quality and Alcohol-Related Social Reinforcement During Couples Interaction

“…Consistent with our own prior work (e.g., Fairbairn & Sayette, 2013; Sayette et al, 2012; Testa et al, 2014), as well as other work in this tradition (see Fairbairn et al, 2015 for a review), we did not explore each negative and positive behavioral code separately, but instead summed across all codes within each category to create composite negative and positive behavioral frequency indexes. Here, as elsewhere (e.g., Cranford, Tennen, & Zucker, 2015), we found that several of the negative behaviors (e.g., psychological abuse, withdrawal) did not manifest with sufficient frequency to permit independent examination of these behaviors.…”

A multimethod examination of negative behaviors during couples interactions and problem drinking trajectories.

“…They first completed a background questionnaire including demographics and retrospective measures of drinking behavior, personality, and mood (e.g., Beck Depression Inventory, Beck, Steer, & Carbin, 1988; Antisocial Behavior Inventory, Zucker, Ellis, Fitzgerald, Bingham, & Sanford, 1996). Couples were then asked to select a problem that causes intense disagreement in their relationship, and to discuss it for 15 minutes (see Cranford et al, 2015 for more details). Couple interactions were videotaped.…”