Dyadic alcohol use,alcohol-specific conflict,and relationship dissatisfaction in treatment-seeking men and their female partners

Abstract

Intimate partners consuming different amounts of alcohol tend to have lower relationship satisfaction, whereas those drinking at similar levels often report happier unions. It is presently unclear how dyadic alcohol use patterns impact relationship satisfaction for couples wherein one member has an alcohol use disorder. We examined this using longitudinal data from an alcoholic treatment sample (N = 181) and further explored whether conflict pursuant to differential use played a mediating role. Partners similar in their baseline frequency of alcohol intoxication reported higher initial satisfaction but experienced significant declines in satisfaction longitudinally. Highly differential alcohol use was associated with lower satisfaction for both partners at baseline, which was mediated by conflict specific to men’s alcohol use. Notably, baseline relationship variables also predicted subsequent changes in alcohol use. These findings overall support a dyadic understanding of alcoholism and highlight that drinking patterns may link to long-term relationship outcomes differently for alcoholics.

Keywords

Alcohol use alcoholism concordance discordance relationship satisfaction treatment seeking

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ben-Ari

Lavee

(2005). Dyadic characteristics of individual attributes: Attachment, neuroticism, and their relation to marital quality and closeness. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 75, 621–631.

Derrick

J. L.

Leonard

K. E.

Quigley

B. M.

Houston

R. J.

Testa

Kubiak

(2010). Relationship-specific alcohol expectancies in couples with concordant and discrepant drinking patterns. Journal of Studies on Alcohol & Drugs, 71, 761–768.

Dunn

N. J.

Jacob

Hummon

Seilhamer

R. A.

(1987). Marital stability in alcoholic-spouse relationships as a function of drinking pattern and location. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 96, 99.

Epstein

E. E.

McCrady

B. S.

(1998). Behavioral couples treatment of alcohol and drug use disorders: Current status and innovations. Clinical Psychology Review, 18, 689–711.

Epstein

E. E.

McCrady

B. S.

Hirsch

L. S.

(1997). Marital functioning in early versus late-onset alcoholic couples. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 21, 547–556.

Fals-Stewart

O’Farrell

T. J.

Freitas

T. T.

McFarlin

S. K.

Rutigliano

(2000). The timeline followback reports of psychoactive substance use by drug-abusing patients: Psychometric properties. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 68, 134.

Field

C. A.

Caetano

(2004). Ethnic differences in intimate partner violence in the US general population: The role of alcohol use and socioeconomic status. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 5, 303–317.

First

M. B.

Spitzer

R. L.

Gibbon

Williams

J. B.

(1997). User’s guide for the structured clinical interview for DSM-IV axis I disorders SCID-I: Clinician version. American Psychiatric Publishing.

Gonzaga

G. C.

Campos

Bradbury

(2007). Similarity, convergence, and relationship satisfaction in dating and married couples. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 34.

10.

Haber

J. R.

Jacob

(1997). Marital interactions of male versus female alcoholics. Family Process, 36, 385–402.

11.

Homish

G. G.

Leonard

K. E.

(2005). Marital quality and congruent drinking. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 66, 488–496.

12.

Homish

G. G.

Leonard

K. E.

(2007). The drinking partnership and marital satisfaction: The longitudinal influence of discrepant drinking. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 75, 43–51.

13.

Hughes

P. C.

Dickson

F. C.

(2005). Communication, marital satisfaction, and religious orientation in interfaith marriages. The Journal of Family Communication, 5, 25–41.

14.

Humbad

M. N.

Donnellan

M. B.

Iacono

W. G.

McGue

Burt

S. A.

(2010). Is spousal similarity for personality a matter of convergence or selection? Personality and Individual Differences, 49, 827–830.

15.

Humphreys

Weisner

. (2014). Use of exclusion criteria in selecting research subjects and its effect on the generalizability of alcohol treatment outcome studies. American Journal of Psychiatry, 157, 588–594.

16.

Jacob

Leonard

(1992). Sequential analysis of marital interactions involving alcoholic, depressed, and nondistressed men. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 101, 647.

17.

Jacob

Leonard

K. E.

Randolph Haber

(2001). Family interactions of alcoholics as related to alcoholism type and drinking condition. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 25, 835–843.

18.

Kearns-Bodkin

J. N.

Leonard

K. E.

(2005). Alcohol involvement and marital quality in the early years of marriage: A longitudinal growth curve analysis. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 29, 2123–2134.

19.

Kelly

A. B.

Halford

W. K.

Young

R. M.

(2002). Couple communication and female problem drinking: A behavioral observation study. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 16, 269–271.

20.

Lammers

S. M.

Schippers

G. M.

van der Staak

C. P.

(1995). Submission and rebellion: Excessive drinking of women in problematic heterosexual partner relationships. Substance Use & Misuse, 30, 901–917.

21.

Leadley

Clark

C. L.

Caetano

(2000). Couples’ drinking patterns, intimate partner violence, and alcohol-related partnership problems. Journal of Substance Abuse, 11, 253–263.

22.

Leonard

K. E.

(2015). Perspective: Beyond the neural circuits. Nature, 522, S56.

23.

Leonard

K. E.

Eiden

R. D.

(1999). Husband’s and wife’s drinking: Unilateral or bilateral influences among newlyweds in a general population sample. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 13, 130–138.

24.

Leonard

K. E.

Mudar

P. J.

(2000). Alcohol use in the year before marriage: Alcohol expectancies and peer drinking as proximal influences on husband and wife alcohol involvement. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 24, 1666–1679.

25.

Leonard

K. E.

Mudar

P. J.

(2004). Husbands’ influence on wives’ drinking: Testing a relationship motivation model in the early years of marriage. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 18, 340.

26.

Leonard

K. E.

Roberts

L. J.

(1998). The effects of alcohol on the marital interactions of aggressive and nonaggressive husbands and their wives. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 107, 602.

27.

Leonard

K. E.

Rothbard

J. C.

(1999). Alcohol and the marriage effect. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 13, 139–146.

28.

Leonard

K. E.

Smith

P. H.

Homish

G. G.

(2014). Concordant and discordant alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use as predictors of marital dissolution. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 28, 780.

29.

Levitt

Cooper

M. L.

(2010). Daily alcohol use and romantic relationship functioning: Evidence of bidirectional, gender-, and context-specific effects. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36, 1706–1722.

30.

Marshal

M. P.

(2003). For better or for worse? The effects of alcohol use on marital functioning. Clinical Psychology Review, 23, 959–997.

31.

Mattson

R. E.

Frame

L. E.

Johnson

M. D.

(2011). Premarital affect as a predictor of postnuptial marital satisfaction. Personal Relationships, 18, 532–546.

32.

Mattson

R. E.

O’Farrell

T. J.

Monson

C. M.

Panuzio

Taft

C. T.

(2010). Female perpetrated dyadic psychological aggression predicts relapse in a treatment sample of men with substance use disorders. Journal of Family Violence, 25, 33–42.

33.

Mattson

R. E.

Rogge

R. D.

Johnson

M. D.

Davidson

E. K.

Fincham

F. D.

(2013). The positive and negative semantic dimensions of relationship satisfaction. Personal Relationships, 20, 328–355.

34.

McCrady

B. S.

(1982). Marital dysfunction: Alcoholism and marriage. In Pattison

E. M.

Kaufman

(Eds.), Encyclopedic handbook of alcoholism (pp. 673–685). New York, NY: Gardner Press.

35.

Mudar

Leonard

K. E.

Soltysinski

(2001). Discrepant substance use and marital functioning in newlywed couples. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 69, 130–134.

36.

Mumenthelar

M. S.

Taylor

J. L.

O’Hara

Yesavage

J. A.

(1999). Gender differences in moderate drinking effects. Alcohol Research and Health, 23, 55–64.

37.

Pérodeau

G. M.

Kohn

P. M.

(1989). Sex differences in the marital functioning of treated alcoholics. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 23, 1–11.

38.

Powers

M. B.

Vedel

Emmelkamp

P. M.

(2008). Behavioral couples therapy for alcohol and drug use disorders: A meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 28, 952–962.

39.

Quigley

B. M.

Leonard

K. E.

(2000). Alcohol and the continuation of early marital aggression. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 24, 1003–1010.

40.

Raitsalo

Holmila

(2005). The role of the spouse in regulating one’s drinking. Addiction Research and Theory, 13, 137–144.

41.

Raudenbush

S. W.

Brennan

R. T.

Barnett

R. C.

(1995). A multivariate hierarchical model for studying psychological change within married couples. Journal of Family Psychology, 9, 161–174.

42.

Roberts

Leonard

(1998). An empirical typology of drinking partnerships and their relationship to marital functioning and drinking consequences. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 60, 515–526.

43.

Rodriguez

L. M.

Øverup

C. S.

Neighbors

(2013). Perceptions of partners’ problematic alcohol use affect relationship outcomes beyond partner self-reported drinking: Alcohol use in committed romantic relationships. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 27, 627.

44.

Royston

Altman

D. G.

Sauerbrei

(2006). Dichotomizing continuous predictors in multiple regression: A bad idea. Stat Med, 25, 127–141.

45.

Sabourin

Valois

Lussier

(2005). Development and validation of a brief version of the Dyadic Adjustment Scale with a nonparametric item analysis model. Psychological Assessment, 17, 15–27.

46.

Schuckit

M. A.

Daeppen

Tipp

J. E.

Hasselbrock

Bucholz

K. K.

(1998). The clinical course of alcohol-related problems in alcohol dependent and nonalcohol dependent drinking women and men. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 59, 581–590.

47.

Spanier

G. B.

(1976). Measuring dyadic adjustment: New scales for assessing the quality of marriage and similar dyads. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 38, 15–28.

48.

Tofighi

MacKinnon

D. P.

(2011). RMediation: An R package for mediation analysis confidence intervals. Behavior Research Methods, 43, 692–700.

49.

Tucker

J. S.

Anders

S. L.

(2001). Social control of health behaviors in marriage. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 31, 467–485.

50.

Velotti

Balzarotti

Tagliabue

English

Zavattini

G. C.

Gross

J. J.

(2015). Emotional suppression in early marriage actor, partner, and similarity effects on marital quality. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. doi:0265407515574466

51.

Wanberg

K. W.

Horn

J. L.

Foster

F. M.

(1977). A differential assessment model for alcoholism: The scales of the alcohol use inventory. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 38, 512–543.

52.

Whisman

M. A.

Uebelacker

L. A.

Bruce

M. L.

(2006). Longitudinal association between marital dissatisfaction and alcohol use disorders in a community sample. Journal of Family Psychology, 20, 164.

53.

Wiersma

J. D.

Fischer

J. L.

(2014). Young adult drinking partnerships: Alcohol-related consequences and relationship problems six years later. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 75, 704.