Is Binge Drinking Affected By Romantic Relationships?

The question is whether or not who you date influences your drinking habits. According to Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, the answer is yes. The University conducted research on the question by tracking the drinking behaviors of 208 college-aged unmarried, heterosexual couples over the period of 28 days.

Every couple had been dating for a minimum of three months and was in one another’s company at least five times during the week. The researchers say that by the study’s end they could confidently anticipate one person’s binge drinking likelihood based entirely upon the drinking behavior of their partner.

The study brings to the forefront a troubling trend of increased drinking among women overall. Harvard Medical School released findings which show that during the 1980’s the ratio of male-female alcohol addiction was five to one (five men were alcohol dependent for every one woman likewise addicted) but that by the year 2002 that ratio was down to 2.5 men for every one woman dependent on alcohol. This increased involvement of women with alcohol is problematic for a number of reasons.

1. The male and female bodies do not metabolize alcohol at the same rate. Although both men and women put themselves in danger of developing alcohol poisoning, cirrhosis of the liver and cancer from excessive drinking, a woman will become inebriated after consuming just half the amount needed to produce the same condition in a man. Because women’s bodies metabolize the alcohol that much slower, women who drink to excess develop cirrhosis of the liver more quickly than do men.
2. Women are statistically at a higher risk of dying in an alcohol-related incident.
3. Excessive drinking will damage the female brain more rapidly than it will a man’s. Studies show that a woman who binge drinks for four years has a lower level of serotonin activity within her brain which is comparable to a man who has been binge drinking for 14 years.
4. Women who drink put themselves at greater risk for becoming a victim of a violent act. In fact, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that alcohol is involved in 75 percent of all instances of violence among intimate (romantic) partners.

Critics of the Dalhousie study say that the report fails to account for the influence of shared social environments that couples enjoy. It could as easily be that couples attend the same events and are influenced to over-drink by their social surroundings as much as by one another. That criticism does not answer the question of how romantic relationships influence social decisions.

Women are in particular danger when it comes to choosing a romantic partner who drinks to excess.