The influence of changes in marital status on developmental trajectories of alcohol use in young adults

Objective. Multiple group latent curve analysis was used to assess the impact of changes in marital status on alcohol use trajectories in young adults and to test if these effects varied across ethnicity and gender. Method: Four years of data were obtained from a sample of young adults (N = 4,052; 54% male) drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Alcohol use and marital status were assessed once per year and covariates included age, gender, education and ethnicity. Results: Latent curve models indicated that there was an overall nonlinear negative alcohol use trajectory across the four time points and that becoming married was reliably associated with an added down-turn to this trajectory. Multiple group models indicated that there was an interaction between ethnicity and marital status in the prediction of alcohol growth trajectories, but there was no interaction with gender. Conclusions: Becoming married for the first time exerted a unique effect on the overall developmental trajectory of alcohol use over time. This effect held for both ethnic groups but was reliably stronger for white compared to black respondents. This interaction may be attributable to lower levels of alcohol use reported by black respondents, or may be related to individual differences in reactivity to social influences by blacks relative to whites.