Lastly, because of its large population-based sample, this study was well powered to explore whether the association of marital status and risk for alcohol use disorder differed between the sexes. Previous studies have typically found a greater “marriage benefit” with respect to health for men than for women (24, 45). However, our results were inconsistent with these expectations. This may be attributable to the fact that there are more male problem drinkers for women with this predisposition to partner with than vice versa (46, 47). By contrast, the impact of a family history and the interaction between a family history and marital status on risk for alcohol use disorder were similar in men and women. Historically, sex differences for interactions have not been systematically examined (48), in part because of concerns about statistical power and type II error. Although it has been suggested that men may be more sensitive to relationship factors than women (49),we do not find evidence of that here.
