Marital status was measured at each assessment. Six response options were combined to create a binary variable for each time point. “Married” and “living as married” were combined and coded as married (1). All other response options (i.e., “widowed,” “separated,” “divorced,” and “never married”) were combined and coded as unmarried (0). (We note that there were no widowed participants in the sample.) This approach is consistent with previous studies of the moderating effect of relationship status on genetic risk for alcohol phenotypes (e.g., Heath et al., 1989). Individuals whose marital status changed (e.g., from married to divorced) were coded differently across time.
