'Tis the season to have a few adult beverages to loosen up the holiday cheer. But can your egg nog intake this time of the year predict if you and your spouse could be headed to divorce court? According to a report coming out of the University at Buffalo, the answer may be yes — and not in a way you might think.
The researchers took 634 couples and followed them through their first nine years of marriage. During this time, they took account as to how much each spouse drank, and the outcome at the end (remained married or divorced). It turned out that it wasn't the amount they drank that was a bigger predictor of divorce, but the rate at which the couples drank in relation to each other.
Half of the couples in which one partner was imbibing significantly more than their spouse ended up divorcing. However, that number dropped to 30 percent for couples who possessed similar drinking habits, regardless of if they were heavy or light drinkers.
"Our results indicate that it is the difference between the couple's drinking habits, rather than the drinking itself, that leads to marital dissatisfaction, separation and divorce," said Kenneth Leonard, the lead author on the study.
For more:
Couples' Drinking Habits May Predict Likelihood Of Divorce, Study Finds (Huffington Post)