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Parental alcohol use disorder and offspring marital outcomes
Author(s) -
Salvatore Jessica E.,
Larsson Lönn Sara,
Long Elizabeth C.,
Sundquist Jan,
Kendler Kenneth S.,
Sundquist Kristina,
Edwards Alexis C.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
addiction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.424
H-Index - 193
eISSN - 1360-0443
pISSN - 0965-2140
DOI - 10.1111/add.14405
Subject(s) - spouse , alcohol use disorder , offspring , demography , medicine , odds ratio , marital status , logistic regression , psychology , psychiatry , pregnancy , alcohol , population , anthropology , genetics , biochemistry , chemistry , sociology , biology
Abstract Aims We tested whether parental alcohol use disorder (AUD) predicted adult offspring's likelihood of marriage and marriage to an AUD‐affected spouse; whether effects differed as a function of the sex or number of affected parents; and whether they were robust to confounders. Design Sex‐stratified Cox and logistic regression models. Setting Sweden. Participants A total of 1 171 070 individuals (51.40% male) born 1965–75. Measurements Obtained from legal, medical and pharmacy registries. Predictor was parent AUD. Outcomes were marriage and spouse AUD. Adjustments included offspring birth year and AUD; and parental education, marriage, divorce, criminal behavior and drug abuse. Findings Male and female offspring of AUD‐affected parents were more likely to marry at younger ages (< 25), illustrative unadjusted hazard ratio (HR) age 20 = 1.22 (1.17, 1.28) and 1.34 (1.20, 1.39) and were less likely to marry at older ages (> 25), HR age 30 = 0.79 (0.78, 0.81) and 0.82 (0.81, 0.84). Parental AUD was associated with higher odds of having an affected spouse for males and females, odds ratio (OR) = 1.47 (1.38, 1.57) and 1.63 (1.56, 1.70). Effects were more pronounced for those with two versus one AUD‐affected parent and adjustments attenuated effects negligibly. Daughters of affected mothers (versus fathers) were more likely to have AUD‐affected husbands, OR = 1.68 (1.54, 1.84) versus 1.56 (1.48, 1.64), while there was no difference in sons. Conclusions In Sweden, parental alcohol use disorder (AUD) is associated with a higher probability of marriage at younger ages, a lower probability of marriage at older ages and a higher likelihood of marriage to an affected spouse compared with no parental AUD. Most of these effects become stronger when the number of AUD‐affected parents increases from one to two, and most effects hold after controlling for parents’ socio‐economic status, marital history, other externalizing disorders and offspring's own AUD status. Daughters of affected mothers are more likely to have an affected spouse.