Study Finds That The Couples That Booze Together, Stay Together

A recently-published study conducted by The Journals of Gerontology has found that married couples report being happier together on the basis of whether they drink together or not. We know that many of our HerFamily readers are dedicated parents of small children who look forward to that glass of wine at the end of the day, and for that reason, we love to hear the results of these kinds of fun studies. We're not talking excessive drinking or alcohol abuse - we're talking a clink of glasses at the end of the day to say, "Brava! We got through it again!" This study analysed responses from 4,864 married participants between 2006 and 2016 which asked them to detail how many units of alcohol they drank per week. It also asked them to answer questions pertaining to the levels of happiness they experienced within their marriages. In short, here's what the study results found;

“Concordant drinking couples reported decreased negative marital quality over time, and these links were significantly greater among wives. Wives who reported drinking alcohol reported decreased negative marital quality over time when husbands also reported drinking and increased negative marital quality over time when husbands reported not drinking.”

So, wives are not happy within their marriage if they are drinking while hubby is not, and couples who go on and off the booze at different times report decreased marital quality too. In a nutshell, spouses are happiest when they are doing the same thing at the same time, and doing it together. This study is another indication that we should all be pairing up with someone who shares the same lifestyle and interests as us, but we already knew that, right? Cheers everyone! Join the conversation on Twitter @HerFamilydotie