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Marriage and reductions in men's alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis use

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2019

Jessica E. Salvatore Open the ORCID record for Jessica E. Salvatore [Opens in a new window] ,
Charles O. Gardner  and
Kenneth S. Kendler
Jessica E. Salvatore*
Affiliation:
Departmentof Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA
Charles O. Gardner
Affiliation:
Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA
Kenneth S. Kendler*
Affiliation:
Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA Department of Psychiatry, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA
*
Author for correspondence: Jessica E. Salvatore, E-mail: jesalvatore@vcu.edu; Kenneth S. Kendler, E-mail: kenneth.kendler@vcuhealth.org
Author for correspondence: Jessica E. Salvatore, E-mail: jesalvatore@vcu.edu; Kenneth S. Kendler, E-mail: kenneth.kendler@vcuhealth.org
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Abstract

Background

Psychoactive substance use is lower among married compared to divorced or unmarried men; yet, the nature of this effect remains unclear because becoming and staying married is potentially confounded with substance-related background familial and individual factors, like parental divorce and personality. The authors investigated the associations between marital status and substance use; how substance use changed across the transition to marriage; and whether marriage effects were likely to be causal.

Method

The sample included 1790 adults from male–male twin pairs from a population-based registry. Measures of marital status and alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis use came from Life History Calendars. Data were analyzed using regression, co-twin comparison, and within-person models. The latter models are tools for quasi-causal inference that control for familial and individual-level confounders.

Results

Married men used less alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis than men who were divorced/separated or single. In analyses of substance use across the transition to marriage, men reduced their alcohol and cannabis use both before and after marriage, but their tobacco use only after marriage. These effects were largely robust in co-twin and within-person analyses.

Conclusions

Marriage was associated with substantial reductions in substance use compared to being divorced/separated or single, and these reductions began prior to marriage. The co-twin comparison and within-person models ruled out the alternative explanation that marriage effects were due to confounding background familial and individual factors. These results provide strong evidence that the social role expectations associated with marriage reduce psychoactive substance use.

Keywords

Alcoholcannabismarriagequasi-causal inferencetobacco
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 50 , Issue 15 , November 2020 , pp. 2634 - 2640
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

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