Do Liberated Women Drive Their Husbands to Drink? The Impact of Masculine Orientation, Status Inconsistency, and Family Life Satisfaction on Male Liquor Consumption

Abstract

Weekly liquor consumption by 62 men married to working wives was found to increase as a function of dissatisfaction with family life and perceived conflict of wife's work and the marriage. Relatively high education in a wife (status inconsistency) directly increased family satisfaction, decreased perceived conflict, and, thereby, indirectly reduced liquor consumption. A liberated masculine orientation facilitated the positive impact of relative education on family life satisfaction and the impact of education on lack of perceived conflict of wife's work and the marital relationship; consequently, the indirect effect of relative education on liquor consumption occurred only for ‘liberated” husbands.