Marriage Makes Women Drink More, Study Finds

Well, here's something you don't hear about in the singles bar scene: Researchers at the University of Cincinnati have found that married women tend to drink more than single women, widows, or divorcees.

Meanwhile, married men tend to drink less than their single or divorced friends.

In fact, divorced men tended to drink the most, while divorced women actually drank less than their married counterparts. So naturally, the researchers blamed the men.

"Our qualitative results suggest this occurs because men introduce and prompt women's drinking, and because divorced women lose the influence of men's alcohol use upon dissolution," they wrote. Meanwhile, marriage (and perhaps the wife/children influence) tends to lower the husband's drinking rate.

The researchers suggest that marriage can promote good health, especially since past research found that married people tended to eat healtheir as well. Overall, married couples drank less than single or divorced people, although we can imagine how a good glass of wine or two could be necessary with some bratty teens around.