Marriage Drives Women to Drink, Men to the Wagon

Marriage changes people?including their drinking habits. While married men tend to drink less after tying the knot, women tend to drink more.

Why the two shift their tendencies is the subject of a fascinating study presented recently at the American Sociological Assn.?s annual meeting in Denver.

Researchers wanted to see how marriage, divorce and widowhood influenced drinking patterns among married heterosexual couples throughout their lives. They explored data on about 5,300 people who were part of a longitudinal study that started in 1957 and continued through 2004. The participants took part in interviews and questionnaires.

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Overall, married men drank less than single, divorced and windowed men. Married women drank more than women who had been divorced long-term or who were recently widowed.

When men and women married, previous habits and a lifestyle shift seemed to affect each other?s drinking habits. For example, men who used to hang out at bars when they were single found that behavior was pretty much a no-go once they got hitched, whether it was their own decision or due to their wife?s reaction.

Said one participant named Bart, ?I would be at the pubs down the block. ? In those days, it wasn?t a bottle, it was a glass. You could have more than that, maybe three glasses or something. I got married early so that saved me. I had no time. I couldn?t go out with the guys or anything anymore.?

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Some wives flat-out told their husbands they were drinking too much. A man named Jake told how his drinking changed because of his wife?s concerns: ?Yeah, it probably reined me in at some point. I mean, I am totally an animal as far as that goes. I could have been much more involved in it without her trying to put a control on it.?

For women, with marriage came an escalation of their drinking, swayed by their husband?s behavior. Some talked about how they enjoyed drinking as a couple.

A woman named Anna said, ?I remember my husband and I would sit on the couch and we would each have a drink. And that just became a habit. ? But I never drank heavily on my own.?

But if men?s and women?s drinking behaviors converged when they got together, things didn?t stay that when they divorced. Take a guess: who channeled their stress into drinking, and who channeled it into food?

Yep, the researchers found that soon after divorcing, men hit the bottle?sometimes pretty hard?more than those who stayed married. Remarrying often got them to cut back again.

Many women didn?t even mention drinking following a divorce, noting instead how much weight they lost or gained from being depressed.

?Whereas men described drinking as central to their coping mechanisms,? the authors wrote, ?women described not drinking as a part of their divorce processing.? Divorce may ultimately lead to better health for some women, especially those formerly married to problem drinkers.

But the authors also discovered that women who were recently divorced or divorced long-term were more likely to say they ever had at least one drinking problem, compared to long-term married women.

"This was a fascinating finding," lead author Corinne Reczek of the University of Cincinnati told CBS News. ?The reason divorced women report ever (not currently) having a drinking problem is, perhaps, because they were previously married to men who also had drinking problems. With divorce, they may no longer drink alcohol.?

Have your drinking habits changed since you got married? Let us know in the comments.

Related Stories on TakePart:

? Quick Study: Binge Drinking May Be the Most Depressing Road to Happiness for College Students

? Alcohol Abuse Higher Two Years After Bariatric Surgery

? Is Moderate Drinking During Pregnancy OK?

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Jeannine Stein, a California native, wrote about health for the Los Angeles Times. In her pursuit of a healthy lifestyle she has taken countless fitness classes, hiked in Nepal, and has gotten in a boxing ring. Email Jeannine | TakePart.com

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/marriage-drives-women-drink-men-wagon-194547347.html

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