Sex and marital status in relation to the characteristics of alcoholics.

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Abstract
The relative contributions of sex and marital status in relation to alcoholism were assessed in a sample of 392 alcoholic patients (124 married and 186 unmarried men, 36 married and 46 unmarried women) treated in residential alcoholism programs. Each patient answered a questionnaire dealing with 4 broad areas: socioeconomic status, personal background characteristics, psychological and physical symptoms, and drinking patterns and use of sleeping pills and tranquilizers. The married alcoholics, regardless of sex, tended to be older than the unmarried (41 and 44% of the married men and women were 50 or older, vs. 31% of the unmarried men and women), to have higher incomes (70 and 52% of the married men and women had an income of over $10,000/yr, vs. 16 and 22%) and to have a greater residential stability (53 and 56% of married men and women lived in the same place for over 4 yr, vs. 11 and 26%). All of the variables in the other 3 general areas were subjected to a sex .times. marital status analysis of variance. There were no significant interaction effects between sex and marital status and personal background characteristics, but some previously reported sex differences were confirmed; compared with the men, the women were significantly (P < .001) older when they first drank and when they first drank to get intoxicated, they had fewer arrests, and a larger proportion reported that their mothers and spouses are or were heavy drinkers. Within the currently married sample, women were also more likely than the men to report heavy drinking by their spouses (P < .001). The married patients were significantly older when they first drank to get drunk (P < .01) and when they first recognized their drinking as a problem, had fewer arrests, and were less likely to report that they had been hospitalized previously for alcoholism (P < .001). Psychological functioning was not related to sex. The married patients in general, and especially the men, were more self-confident and less depressed than the unmarried patients. There were no significant interactions between sex and marital status and the variables of the drinking patterns and medication-use (largest amount of distilled spirits, amount of sleeping pills and tranquilizers, drinking at work, at home, alone, with friends, as part of a group). Meaningful comparisons between men and women alcoholics can only be made when marital status is controlled.

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