Alcoholism breaks marriages

Almaty. January 21. Kazakhstan Today - A new study claims that alcohol influences the time one gets married, as well as whether those marriages are successful, the agency reports.

The study found that alcohol dependence was a strong predictor of both delays in marriage and early separation, CNN reported.

Mary Waldron, an assistant professor at the Indiana University School of Education and colleagues recruited over 5,000 Australian twins in the early 1980s, assessing physical, psychological and physical manifestations of alcohol use, including age at onset of alcohol dependence.

They also analysed age of first marriage and age of separation from the marriage in twins who were between the ages of 28 and 92 at last assessment.

Results indicated a strong link between alcohol dependence and delayed marriage, as well as early separation.

"For young adults who are drinking, if their drinking continues to levels of problem use, it could impact their likelihood of marriage as well as likelihood of having a really lasting marriage," said study author Mary Waldron, assistant professor in human development at Indiana University. "What we found is it's true that alcohol dependence is a strong predictor of separation and we've known that for quite a while, it was really the predictor of delayed marriage.

The researchers found the association between alcoholism and getting married for the first time at a 23% lower likelihood for women. For men it was 36% lower only after age 29. For both sexes, the researchers concluded that the chance of separation was twice as likely and earlier.

Alcohol dependency not only affects people who drink excessively, but also spouses, friends and family.

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