Wives' convergence with their husbands' alcohol use: social conditions as mediators

This study examines, in a general population, how the association of wives' alcohol use with their husbands' is mediated by social conditions such as working and child-rearing roles, age, marital happiness and socioeconomic levels.

Data come from the Québec Health and Social Survey 1992-93. The sample comprised 6,582 couples; 3,872 couples after weighting. Regression analyses assessed the contribution of husbands' drinking to wives' drinking, independently, as well as in interaction with social conditions. Frequency of drinking in general and frequency of five or more drinks per occasion (5+) were analyzed.

Wives' drinking is positively related to their husbands' drinking, both in terms of frequency of drinking and, to a lesser degree, of frequency of 5+. The drinking frequency association is not modified by working or child-rearing roles, nor by age, but is more marked for couples of higher socioeconomic levels and for wives happy with marital life. The frequency of 5+ association is not modified by marital happiness or by wives' working roles, but is more marked for couples of higher socioeconomic levels, for couples with a child at home and for younger women.

This study highlights the contribution of social factors to the association of wives' drinking with their husbands' and suggests that these social factors operate through structuring marital drinking interactions. Further research is needed to clarify the complex social processes that mediate the spousal drinking association.