Marriage: does it protect young women from alcoholism?

The literature is replete with conflicting articles about the relationship of marital status and drinking in women. This study is an analysis of the drinking practices of women, 24 through 32 years old, who were respondents in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). Variations in drinking patterns for the years 1982 through 1988 as a function of changes in marital status are detailed. Findings indicated that women who married or remarried decreased drinking, whereas those who became separated or divorced increased drinking. In the present study, women with alcoholic spouses exhibited similar changes in drinking as did other young women. Our conclusion was that the instability created by a change in social position, namely marital status, led to changes in drinking patterns during the study interval in the direction of those associated with the new social position.