The role of the spouse in regulating one's drinking

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between experiences of external influence from spouses and partners to influence one's drinking and one's own concern over drinking; whether spouse's control attempts and concern over one's own drinking are in congruence; how the level of drinking and the frequency of drinking to intoxication and the estimate of the spouse's level of drinking are related, for women and men belonging to different sociodemographic groups. Using data from the 2000 Finnish Drinking Habit Survey (n = 1337), our results show that (1) drinking habits – especially drinking large quantities on a single occasion – are strongly related to both external control from the spouse and one's own concern about drinking and (2) there are significant differences between genders in the level of control from the spouse and concern over one's own drinking habit. These results are important when planning treatment and prevention for drinkers and their families.

• Gender
• drinking
• informal control
• spouse
• regulation of drinking