Let’s Stay (and Drink) Together

A new study shows that couples whose drinking habits are similar tend to have longer lasting relationships than those with disparate usage patterns. The Sydney Morning Herald describes the observations by University of Buffalo’s Institute on Research Addiction of 634 couples over nine years: “almost 50 per cent of the marriages ended in divorce when only one partner drank more heavily.” Using the calculation of six drinks per sitting as “heavy drinking” the evidence points to “divorce rates for all other couples…at 30 per cent.” Surprisingly, the study also put forth the notion that couples who drink heavily together face no more threat of divorce than couples who drink moderately or not at all. As one of the researchers states, it’s actually “”the difference between the couple’s drinking habits, rather than the drinking itself, that leads to marital dissatisfaction, separation and divorce.”” Just one more reason to go tit for tat. [Sydney Morning Herald]