In conclusion, the present study adds to the literature by examining the associations between alcohol use disorder and marital outcomes in a diverse sample enriched for risk. We capitalized on COGA’s multigenerational family-based sample to account for familial components (measured genetic relatedness and familial environment) to better understand the phenotypic associations between AUD and marital outcomes. AUD was associated with marriage in both EA and AA samples, and these effects were largely independent of polygenic predispositions for alcohol problems and common comorbid externalizing and internalizing disorders, and also held when controlling for shared familial factors that contribute to marriage. AUD was associated with divorce in the EA, but not AA, sample. Our results demonstrate the importance of AUD for both marriage and divorce even in a high-risk population. Future studies addressing questions such as what mechanisms contribute to these associations and the degree to which the associations reflect causal and non-causal processes would further help in clarifying the social consequences of AUD.
