Marriage and alcohol do not seem to be incompatible according to an American study conducted by Buffalo Research Institute researchers. The secret, according to scientists, is to drink together. Because when only one of the two partners is a heavy drinker, the couple has a 50% chance of divorcing within the first nine years of marriage. But when both members of the couple are heavy drinkers, their divorce rate (30%) is the same as those who drink moderately or not at all.
For this study, 637 couples were followed during their first years of marriage. Factors such as marijuana and tobacco use, depression, and socioeconomic status, which may influence their relationships, were taken into account.
“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,” explains the lead author of the study, Kenneth Leonard.
The researchers also found a divorce rate slightly higher when the heavy drinker is the wife, rather than the husband. But this difference is only based on the example of a few couples who participated in the study and would therefore not be statistically significant. “We hope that these results will be useful to therapists who deal with marital problems and to mental health practitioners who can seek out the source of the couple’s conflicts in their different drinking habits”, concludes the researcher. .
