Alcohol involvement and marital quality in the early years of marriage: a longitudinal growth curve analysis.

Background: Previous research suggests that becoming married is associated with declines in drinking. The current study examines two potential influences on newly married husbands' and wives' drinking trajectories, the impact of the partner's drinking and the quality of the marriage.

Methods: Couples (n=592) were assessed at the time of their first marriage, at the first anniversary, and at the second anniversary. Husbands and wives completed separate, self-administered questionnaires at home. Latent growth curve analysis was used to examine husbands' and wives' alcohol use and marital quality trajectories and to test the bi-directional relationships between alcohol involvement and marital quality both within and between couple members.

Results: Husbands' and wives' alcohol involvement and marital quality declined over time and there was significant individual variability in these changes over time. Although we failed to find any longitudinal influence of greater alcohol involvement on declines in marital quality or vice versa, individuals' marital quality and alcohol involvement were correlated at the time of marriage and individuals' changes in drinking were significantly associated with changes in their reported marital satisfaction. There were also significant correlations observed between one partner's alcohol involvement slope and the spouse's marital quality slope, indicating that steeper declines in husbands' and wives' drinking were associated with less steep declines in their partner's marital quality.

Conclusions: There is clearly an association between husbands' and wives' alcohol use and marital quality. However, given the absence of longitudinal effects, we cannot discern the temporal precedence of this association. Additional research is needed to more fully understand this complex relationship.