We first asked whether AUD was associated with marriage. In the EA sample, we extended the previous findings from population-based samples (Fu & Goldman, 1996; Grant et al., 2015; Waldron et al., 2011) and found that lifetime AUD was also associated with a reduced likelihood of marriage in a high-risk sample, after controlling for alcohol problems PRS and common psychiatric comorbidities. Consistent with previous findings that psychiatric disorders are associated with marital outcomes (Forthofer et al., 1996), we found that cannabis dependence/abuse was associated with lower likelihood of marriage. These associations may partly reflect the incompatibility between problematic substance use and the social roles expectations typically associated with marriage. Frequent tobacco use was associated with higher likelihood of marriage. Although not expected, this finding mirrors prior evidence that there is less role conflict between marriage and tobacco compared to other substances of abuse (Salvatore et al., 2019). Importantly, the effect of AUD on marriage was independent of the effects of common psychiatric comorbidities and polygenic loading for alcohol problems. Expanding on previous literature, we also found that the association between AUD and lower odds of marriage was more pronounced among those with comorbid cannabis dependence/abuse.
