Married Women Drink More, Blame It On Men

What is it about marriage that drives women to drink? What is it about divorce that makes another drink look good to men? Researchers at the University of Cincinnati who tracked the marriage and drinking of 5,300 people (who were aged 53 and 54 in 1993) aren’t sure about the reasons, but they have done the math. It shows that for women, the average number of drinks per month was nine for those who were married and 6.5 for those who were divorced over that time; for men, the numbers were 19.2 and 21.5, respectively. For those who got divorced during that period, the average monthly number of drinks per month was 10 for women and 26 for men. HealthDay reports that when researchers asked married women why they drank more since they got married, the women threw their husbands under the bus, saying their men encouraged them to drink. And why do recently divorced men drink more? For men, the researchers say, stress relief often comes from booze; for women, it comes from food. Read more at HealthDay. Why do you think married women drink more than unmarried women?