Risky sexual behavior among married alcoholic men.

The current study explored whether the wives of men entering alcoholism treatment are at risk for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) exposure as a result of their husbands' sexual risk behaviors. The extramarital relationships of married alcoholic men entering outpatient treatment (n = 125) were compared with those of a demographically matched community sample of nonalcoholic married men (n = 125). The proportion of alcoholic men who reported 1 or more extramarital affairs in the previous year (14%) was significantly higher than that of the community sample (4%). Additionally, only 2 alcoholic husbands and 1 nonalcoholic husband reported that his wife was aware of the extramarital relationship. For both groups, none of the men who engaged in extramarital relationships reported consistent use of condoms when having sexual intercourse with their wives or with their extramarital partners. These results suggest that wives of alcoholic men are unknowingly placed at risk for indirect exposure to STIs as a result of their husbands' sexual risk behaviors. Thus, infidelity in treatment-seeking alcohol-abusing men represents a significant public health issue. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Marital interactions of male versus female alcoholics

This study assessed the interactions of 131 alcoholic and nonalcoholic couples as they engaged in discussions of personally relevant problems. For 50 couples, the husband was alcoholic; for 15 couples, the wife was alcoholic; for 16 couples, both spouses were alcoholics; and for 50 couples, neither spouse was alcoholic. Observations were conducted during sessions when alcohol was consumed and in nondrinking sessions. Female alcoholic couples (with nonalcoholic spouses) demonstrated high negativity in the "no-drink" session, which was normalized in the drink session, suggesting an adaptive function to alcohol use. Concordant couples (both members were alcoholic) also demonstrated high negativity in the no-drink session, but exhibited increased negativity in the drink session, suggesting that concordance has a maladaptive impact on marital interaction. All alcoholic groups demonstrated greater negativity and lower positivity and congeniality in their marital interactions compared to nonalcoholic couples. Couples with male alcoholics were the least divergent from normal control couples. Unique female patterns in alcoholism are discussed in terms of adaptive and reinforcing patterns and spousal influences.     

Husbands' and wives' alcohol use disorders and marital interactions as longitudinal predictors of marital adjustment.

In this longitudinal study, the relationships among wives' and husbands' lifetime alcoholism status, marital behaviors, and marital adjustment were tested. Participants were 105 couples from the Michigan Longitudinal Study (MLS), an ongoing multimethod investigation of substance use in a community-based sample of alcoholics, nonalcoholics, and their families. At baseline (T1), husbands and wives completed a series of diagnostic measures, and lifetime diagnosis of alcohol use disorder (AUD, as defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed.), was assessed. Couples completed a problem-solving marital interaction task 3 years later at T2, which was coded for the ratio of positive to negative behaviors. Couples also completed a measure of marital adjustment at T4 (9 years after T1 and 6 years after T2). Results showed that husbands' lifetime AUD predicted lower levels of their wife's positive marital behaviors 3 years later but was not related to their own or their wife's marital adjustment 9 years from baseline. By contrast, wives' lifetime AUD had direct negative associations with their own and their husband's marital satisfaction 9 years later, and wives' marital behaviors during the problem-solving task predicted their own and their husband's marital satisfaction 6 years later. Findings indicate that marital adjustment in alcoholic couples may be driven more by the wives' than the husbands' AUD and marital behavior. Implications for intervention with alcoholic couples were discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Alcoholic-spouse interaction as a function of alcoholism subtype and alcohol consumption interaction.

This study assessed the impact of alcoholism subtype on marital interaction, a research focus stimulated by the investigators' earlier findings linking drinking style with differential levels of marital satisfaction and stability. In the current effort, observations of 49 alcoholics and their wives were conducted during sessions when alcohol was consumed and during nondrinking sessions. Different patterns of interactions emerged for episodic and steady alcoholics. On the drink nights, episodic alcoholic couples evidenced less problem solving than did the steady alcoholic couples. Additionally, among episodic couples, the husbands were more negative on the drink nights than were the wives, whereas among steady couples, wives were more negative than were the alcoholic husbands. The interaction displayed by the episodic alcoholics and their spouses was suggestive of a coercive control pattern. In contrast, the steady alcoholic and his spouse displayed a pattern suggestive of high levels of problem solving. Further research is necessary to determine whether these two different interaction patterns are predictive of continued alcohol abuse or the exacerbation of marital problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Marital interactions of alcoholic couples: Comparison with depressed and nondistressed couples.

The marital interactions of 107 couples were observed as they engaged in discussions of personally relevant problems. For 38 couples the husband was alcoholic, for 35 couples the husband was depressed, and for 34 couples neither spouse had a diagnosed psychopathology. Observations were conducted during sessions when alcohol was consumed by spouses and during nondrinking sessions. Nondistressed couples were differentiated from both groups of clinically diagnosed couples through their increased rates of congeniality and positive behavior. Alcoholic couples tended to be more negative (more critical and disagreeable) than depressed and nondistressed couples when drinking but were indistinguishable from other couples when not drinking. The consumption of alcohol led to the increased expression of affective behavior, both positive and negative. Unanticipated three-way interaction effects also differentiated the alcoholic couples and are considered in terms of sex of the participating child and pattern of drinking manifested by the husband (episodic vs steady). The applicability of these results to a family-systems approach to alcoholism is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Partner Violence Before and After Couples-Based Alcoholism Treatment for Male Alcoholic Patients: The Role of Treatment Involvement and Abstinence.

This study examined partner violence before and after behavioral couples therapy (BCT) for 303 married or cohabiting male alcoholic patients and used a demographically matched nonalcoholic comparison sample. In the year before BCT, 60% of alcoholic patients had been violent toward their female partner, 5 times the comparison sample rate of 12%. In the 1st and 2nd year after BCT, violence decreased significantly from the year before BCT, and clinically significant violence reductions occurred for patients whose alcoholism was remitted after BCT. Structural equation modeling indicated that greater treatment involvement (attending BCT sessions and using BCT-targeted behaviors) was related to lower violence after BCT and that this association was mediated by reduced problem drinking and enhanced relationship functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Partner violence before and after individually based alcoholism treatment for male alcoholic patients.

This study examined partner violence in the year before and the year after individually based, outpatient alcoholism treatment for 301 married or cohabiting male alcoholic patients and used a demographically matched nonalcoholic comparison sample. In the year before treatment, 56% of the alcoholic patients had been violent toward their female partner, 4 times the rate of 14% in the comparison sample. In the year after treatment, violence decreased significantly to 25% of the alcoholic sample but remained higher than in the comparison group. Among remitted alcoholics after treatment, violence prevalence of 15% was nearly identical to the comparison sample and half the rate among relapsed patients (32%). Thus, partner violence decreased after alcoholism treatment, and clinically significant violence reductions occurred for patients whose alcoholism was remitted after treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Discrepant substance use and marital functioning in newlywed couples.

The configuration of partners' drinking patterns may be most critical to marital functioning. Implications of discrepant husband and wife smoking, drinking, and drug use for relationship quality at the transition to marriage were examined. Participants were 642 couples entering into their 1st marriage. Separate, self-administered questionnaires were completed at home by each partner. Both husbands and wives in couples in which only 1 partner drank heavily or used drugs reported significantly lower marital quality than other spouses. Husband Use?×?Wife Use interactions were not significant for cigarette use, alcohol use, or regular drinking. Discrepancies in more deviant substance use behaviors may be most relevant to marital functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hitting home: Relationships between recent deployment, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and marital functioning for Army couples.

Using a sample of 434 couples consisting of active duty Army husbands married to civilian wives, relationships between recent deployment, current posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and a range of marital outcomes were investigated. Self-reports from both husbands and wives regarding relationship functioning did not differ between couples who were and were not separated due to deployment in the prior year. However, deployment in the past year was related to higher levels of current PTSD symptoms for husbands, and husbands' current PTSD symptoms were associated with lower marital satisfaction, confidence in the relationship, positive bonding between the spouses, parenting alliance, and dedication to the relationship for both husbands and wives. In addition, husbands' current PTSD symptoms were associated with higher levels of negative communication for both husbands and wives, and lower satisfaction with sacrifice for the relationship for husbands. Once positive bonding, negative communication, and parenting alliance were controlled, husband PTSD symptoms no longer significantly predicted marital satisfaction for wives. Husband PTSD symptoms continued to exert a significant, but reduced, unique effect on husband marital satisfaction once these variables were accounted for. The results provide greater understanding of the relationship of deployment/PTSD symptoms and marital functioning and suggest areas for intervention with military couples. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Partner violence before and after couples-based alcoholism treatment for female alcoholic patients.

This study examined partner violence before and in the 1st and 2nd year after behavioral couples therapy (BCT) for 103 married or cohabiting women seeking alcohol dependence treatment and their male partners; it used a demographically matched nonalcoholic comparison sample. The treatment sample received M = 16.7 BCT sessions over 5–6 months. Follow-up rates for the treatment sample at Years 1 and 2 were 88% and 83%, respectively. In the year before BCT, 68% of female alcoholic patients had been violent toward their male partner, nearly 5 times the comparison sample rate of 15%. In the year after BCT, violence prevalence decreased significantly to 31% of the treatment sample. Women were classified as remitted after treatment if they demonstrated abstinence or minimal substance use and no serious consequences related to substance use. In Year 1 following BCT, 45% were classified as remitted, and 49% were classified as remitted in Year 2. Among remitted patients in the year after BCT, violence prevalence of 22% did not differ from the comparison sample and was significantly lower than the rate among relapsed patients (38%). Results for male-perpetrated violence and for the 2nd year after BCT were similar to the 1st year. Results supported predictions that partner violence would decrease after BCT and that clinically significant violence reductions to the level of a nonalcoholic comparison sample would occur for patients whose alcoholism was remitted after BCT. These findings replicate previous research among men with alcoholism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Marital interactions of depressed men and women.

This article examined marital interactions in 50 couples with a depressed husband, 41 couples with a depressed wife, and 50 nondepressed control couples. As expected, couples with a depressed partner evidenced more disturbed marital interaction than control couples. Furthermore, couples with a depressed wife demonstrated less positive communication than couples with a depressed husband, notwithstanding the fact the depressed husbands exhibited greater depression severity than depressed wives. Findings are integrated with recent research on gender differences in affective expression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sequential interactions among episodic and steady alcoholics and their wives.

Previous work by the authors has suggested that alcohol's impact on the marital functioning of alcoholics is influenced by the drinking pattern of the alcoholic. This article addresses whether alcohol differentially influences the sequential interactions of episodic and steady alcoholics and their wives. Log-linear analyses examined antecedent-consequence patterns for the 30 steady and 19 episodic alcoholics and their wives reported on by T. Jacob and K. E. Leonard (1988). These couples participated in marital interactions during a drink night and a no-drink night. The results suggested minimal differences between episodic and steady alcoholics or between no-drink and drink night. Wives of episodic alcoholics tended to decrease their negative reactions to husband problem solving on drink versus no-drink night. Wives of steady alcoholics tended to decrease their negative reactions to husband negativity on drink night. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of alcohol on the marital interactions of aggressive and nonaggressive husbands and their wives.

This study examined the marital interactions of 60 maritally aggressive and 75 nonaggressive men and their wives under a baseline condition, and then after the husband had received no alcohol, a placebo, or alcohol. These sessions were videotaped and coded with the Marital Interaction Coding System by coders who were unaware of group status and specific condition. Aggressive couples exhibited more negative behavior and higher levels of negative reciprocity in the baseline interaction than did nonaggressive couples. The administration of alcohol led husbands, but not wives, to increase their problem-solving attempts. Alcohol, but not the placebo, led to increased negativity of both husbands and wives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Selective attentional processing and the right hemisphere: Effects of aging and alcoholism.

Thirty-seven nonalcoholic individuals (22 women, 15 men), ages 26–76, and 36 abstinent alcoholic individuals (11 women, 25 men), ages 31–74, participated in a cued-detection task that assessed right hemisphere (RH) functioning associated with aging and alcoholism. Young controls were less reliant on cues following RH activation, which is consistent with the view that the RH has an advantage because it has the ability to attend to a broader spatial array than does the left hemisphere (LH). This RH advantage was not obtained in older controls or alcoholic participants. The pattern of results for the older nonalcoholic participants indicated that they neither benefited from valid cues following LH activation, nor exhibited enhanced processing on invalid cue trials following RH activation. The results for the alcoholic participants were consistent with RH functional decline, but did not support the view that alcoholism and aging have synergistic effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affect, verbal content, and psychophysiology in the arguments of couples with a violent husband.

Studied the affect, psychophysiology, and verbal content of arguments in couples with a violent husband. On the basis of self-reports of violent arguments, there were no wife behaviors that successfully suppressed husband violence once it began; moreover, husband violence escalated in response to nonviolent as well as violent wife behaviors, whereas wife violence escalated only in reaction to husband violence or emotional abuse. Only wives were fearful during violent and nonviolent arguments. The observational coding of nonviolent arguments in the laboratory revealed that both battering husbands and their wives (DV) were angrier than their maritally distressed but nonviolent (DNV) counterparts. As predicted, on the more provocative anger codes, only DV men differed from their DNV counterparts. However, DV wives were as verbally aggressive toward their husbands as DV husbands were toward their wives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Externalizing symptoms among children of alcoholic parents: Entry points for an antisocial pathway to alcoholism.

The authors examined heterogeneity in risk for externalizing symptoms in children of alcoholic parents, as it may inform the search for entry points into an antisocial pathway to alcoholism. That is, they tested whether the number of alcoholic parents in a family, the comorbid subtype of parental alcoholism, and the gender of the child predicted trajectories of externalizing symptoms over the early life course, as assessed in high-risk samples of children of alcoholic parents and matched controls. Through integrative analyses of 2 independent, longitudinal studies, they showed that children with either an antisocial alcoholic parent or 2 alcoholic parents were at greatest risk for externalizing symptoms. Moreover, children with a depressed alcoholic parent did not differ from those with an antisocial alcoholic parent in reported symptoms. These findings were generally consistent across mother, father, and adolescent reports of symptoms; child gender and child age (ages 2 through 17); and the 2 independent studies examined. Multialcoholic and comorbid-alcoholic families may thus convey a genetic susceptibility to dysregulation along with environments that both exacerbate this susceptibility and provide few supports to offset it. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Directions for research on alcoholic relationships: Marital- and individual-based models of heterogeneity.

The literature on alcoholism and relationship functioning has not yielded an empirically based approach to understanding alcoholic relationships. Though both the alcoholism and marital research fields have begun to systematize heterogeneity observed in clinical and nonclinical samples, the literature on alcoholic relationships has been poorly linked to each field. This article examines research on alcoholic couples to facilitate empirically based models of alcoholic-partner relationships that can be used for patient-treatment matching studies. The authors conclude that current knowledge about alcohol and marriage is limited by (a) sample selection criteria that restrict heterogeneity of the sample, (b) lack of attention to literature on marital and alcoholic subtypes, (c) lack.of attention to literature on alcoholic subtypes, and (d) lack of longitudinal studies linking alcoholic couples subtypes to marital or drinking outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sequential interactions in the marital communication of depressed men and women.

Despite studies showing patterns of sequential interaction between depressed wives and their husbands, no published research has contrasted sequential interactions of depressed husbands and their wives. This study compared problem-solving interactions of 49 couples with a depressed husband, 41 with a depressed wife, and 50 normal controls. Interactions were coded using the Marital Interaction Coding System. Although no clear patterns of sequential interaction distinguished couples with a depressed wife from normal control couples, results suggested a unique pattern of interaction between depressed husbands and their spouses, whereby positive communications from the husband resulted in decreased positivity and increased negativity from their wives. Given the importance of positivity for promoting effective problem solving, this pattern appears to have important implications for couples' long-term marital satisfaction and husbands' mood regulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Marital violence before and after alcoholism treatment.

The prevalence and frequency of marital violence were assessed for 88 male alcoholics and their wives at entry to and 1 year after completing a behavioral marital therapy (BMT) program. In the year before BMT, both the alcoholics and their wives had a significantly and substantially higher prevalence and frequency of marital violence than reported by a demographically matched, nonalcoholic comparison sample. Although violence decreased significantly in prevalence and frequency in the year after BMT it remained significantly elevated relative to the matched controls when the entire sample of alcoholics was considered. However, extent of violence after BMT was significantly associated with the alcoholics' drinking outcome status: After treatment, remitted alcoholics no longer had elevated marital violence levels whereas relapsed alcoholics did. Implications for understanding the marital violence and alcoholism connection and cautions that should be exercised in interpreting the results are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender moderates the relationship between testosterone and marital interaction.

Higher testosterone levels are related to assertiveness and dominance. Given the relevance of those behavioral correlates to spouses' daily transactions, links between testosterone levels and marital interaction were explored among 92 newlywed couples. Marital problem-solving and social support transactions were assessed, and saliva was collected and assayed for testosterone. Whether marital behavior was related to husbands' and wives' testosterone levels was examined. The link between spouses' testosterone and their behavior was contingent on the partner's testosterone levels. Husbands exhibited more adaptive problem-solving behaviors and social support provision when husbands and wives were concordant for lower testosterone levels. In contrast, wives exhibited more adaptive support provision when spouses had discordant testosterone levels such that wives had higher levels and husbands had lower levels. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)