In the present study, we show that marriage is not uniformly protective among a sample of young adults enriched for risk. Our findings suggest that although early marriage itself was not a risky environment, this environment seemed to exacerbate risk for those with higher polygenic load. These results add an interesting developmental perspective on some of the earliest gene-by-environment effects in the field and highlight the importance of utilizing a gene-by-environment-by-development approach (Vrieze, Iacono, & McGue, 2012). Moreover, it emphasizes the need to examine intersecting risk and protective factors within this framework. These findings can aid future clinical work aimed at reducing heavy episodic drinking by informing risk profiling. As our findings suggest that early marriage exacerbates the effects of genetic risk for alcohol misuse, individuals who marry young and who are genetically predisposed to alcohol problems may be an especially important group to target to reduce heavy drinking.
