“Wives who reported drinking alcohol reported decreased negative marital quality over time when husbands also reported drinking, and increased negative marital quality over time when husbands reported not drinking”, says a summary of the study results. Instead, as the authors suggest, it’s more likely that when couples are on the same page about drinking, they’re in sync in other relationship-affirming ways, too. According to Reuters, Birditt and her colleagues asked 4,864 married people about their drinking habits; if they drank, how many days a week they drank and how many drinks they had when they drank. Their work was published last month in the Journals of Gerontology B: Psychological Sciences.
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Researchers at the University of MI analyzed data from 2,767 heterosexual couples over 50 years old that had been married for an average of 33 years. The findings suggest that what’s important isn’t the amount you drink, but whether you and your partner drink at all, and whether you’re compatible in this regard, said Dr Birditt.
Apparently, the quantity the couples drank didn’t matter, nor did the number of times per week. Those couples have happier marriages than couples where only one person drinks or couples where neither person drinks. In particular, participants who drank with their spouse reported a lower incidence of certain kinds of negativity in their relationship (e.g. receiving excess criticism from or often being let down by a spouse).
A new study has found that drinking with your partner is associated with greater happiness than drinking separately. “Couples often stay together despite being irritated”, Birditt wrote in an email.
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The study found that alcohol abuse was a problem for 20 per cent of male respondents and 6 per cent of female respondents.
