Abstract
Marital Stress and Alcohol Use among Same- and Different-Sex Couples
Amanda Pollitt, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Health Sciences, Northern Arizona University
Sexual and gender minorities are three times more likely than heterosexuals to consume alcohol and are more likely to drink heavily, which contributes to health disadvantages for sexual minority older adults. Marital strain is strongly associated with alcohol use across the lifespan, and alcohol can adversely affect health and cognition. Since marriage has only recently been widely available to same-sex couples, little is known about how marital stress and alcohol use unfold in tandem for same-sex couples or how this compares to different-sex couples. Approach: Data from the Health and Relationships Project, which includes three waves of dyadic daily data, will be used to examine how marital stress from one spouse influences the other spouse’s alcohol use on a day-to-day basis among same- and different-sex couples and how these daily dynamics change over a 10-year period in mid- to later adulthood.