ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 3, 1997 TAG: 9702030128
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press DETROIT
Marriage for young adults is a good thing when it comes to cutting back on drinking and using drugs, according to a study released today.
The University of Michigan study of 33,000 young adults from 1976 to 1994 showed that young, unmarried adults usually increased their alcohol, marijuana and cocaine use when they left home, often to attend college.
Those same people, however, decreased their drug and alcohol use when they got engaged, married and had children, the study showed. Conversely, those who stayed single were a high proportion of drug and alcohol users.
``If you feel a responsibility to and for another person, then you are more apt to control your own behavior and play a role in controlling the partner's behavior,'' said Jerald Bachman, one of the study's five authors at the Ann Arbor-based university's Institute for Social Research.
People reporting marijuana use and heavy drinking dropped by one-third during a two-year period when they went from single to married, the study showed.
Couples who lived together but were not engaged or married showed no such drop in drug use. Bachman said such couples apparently had less commitment to one another, which meant fewer changes in their drug habits.
When people divorce, their drug use increases again - only to decline once again if they remarry. Bachman said divorced people are ``more likely again to go to bars and parties.''
But what Bachman calls the ``marriage effect'' brought about only a slight reduction in cigarette smoking habits.
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