Husband's and wife's drinking: Unilateral or bilateral influences among newlyweds in a general population sample

Objective: It is often assumed that a husband's drinking influences his wif e's drinking, but that the wife's drinking has no impact on her husband's d rinking. However, there are Little data that examine this. This article exp lores drinking patterns over the transition to marriage to assess whether c hanges in drinking patterns are influenced by the spouse's drinking and whe ther this influence is comparable for husbands and wives. Method: Approxima tely 500 husbands and wives were recruited after applying for their marriag e licenses and participated in a longitudinal study of alcohol and marriage . Couples completed questionnaires that assessed alcohol use over the prece ding year. These questionnaires were completed at the time of marriage and at the first anniversary Results: Structural equation models were used to e xamine the longitudinal relationships between husband and wife drinking. Th e final model indicated that husbands and wives manifested similar drinking patterns at the time of marriage that could not be attributed to sociodemo graphic factors. Husbands' drinking at premarriage was significantly associ ated with wives' drinking after marriage, but the reverse was not true. Con clusions: The results suggest that husbands and wives display similar patte rns in alcohol use, in part because husbands and wives marry similar indivi duals and because common life experiences impact the drinking of couples in a comparable manner. The similarity also occurs as the reflection of a hus band influence on the wife. However, this process appears to be unilateral in that there was no evidence that the wife's drinking had an impact on the drinking of her husband.