Alcohol Use in the Year Before Marriage: Alcohol Expectancies and Peer Drinking as Proximal Influences on Husband and Wife Alcohol Involvement Kenneth E. Leonard and Pamela J. Mudar Background: Models of adolescent alcohol involvement that include individual difference, family, and peer risk factors indicate a significant association between the drinking of adolescents and that of their peers. Peer drinking influences, however, have not been investigated extensively in integrative models of adult drinking. The purpose of this study was to test a model of adult drinking that incorporated the potentially important risk factor of partner drinking and in which proximal risk factors (peer drinking, alcohol expectancies) were hypothesized to be strongly associated with adult alcohol use and to mediate relationships between more distal risk factors and drinking. Methods: Couples (n = 389) were assessed at the time of their first marriage. Separate, self- administered questionnaires were completed at home by both husbands and wives. Distal risk factors included family history of alcoholism, antisocial behavior, and depressive symptomatology. Substantive relationships were tested in a model that included spousal associations with respect to distal risk factors, proximal risk factors, and drinking. Results: Findings demonstrate the unique association of alcohol expectancies and peer drinking with adult alcohol use. Of particular relevance is the significance of the social network as a correlate of adult drinking. A peer network characterized by a higher level of alcohol involvement was strongly associated with heavier drinking among both men and women. This relationship was independent of sociodemo- graphic and individual difference factors, alcohol expectancies, and partner’s drinking. Results also dem- onstrate the similarity between husband and wife drinking, an association that cannot be attributed to assorting with respect to the other risk factors. Conclusions: The social network continues to significantly impact drinking behavior in adulthood. The relevancy of peer and partner drinking influences to adult alcohol involvement suggests that the immediate social environment may have a prominent role in the continuity/discontinuity of heavy or problem drinking during the transition to marriage. Key Words: Peer, Partner, Expectancies, Adult, Drinking. T HE INITIATION AND escalation of alcohol use throughout adolescence has been studied extensively over the past 25 years. Although much of the early research evaluated univariate, cross-sectional hypotheses, numerous longitudinal studies have incorporated multiple risk factors that include individual difference, family, and peer factors. This research suggests that two major influences on drink- ing behavior develop throughout adolescence: peer drink- ing behavior and alcohol expectancies. Both of these fac- tors have been linked to alcohol initiation and escalation, and there is evidence that the impact of family and other individual risk factors is mediated at least partly by these variables (Brook and Brook, 1988; Dielman et al., 1993; Stice et al., 1998; Wilks et al., 1989). Although research with adult samples consistently has supported the impor- tance of alcohol expectancies, research that links peer drinking to adult drinking is quite limited. This lack of research may reflect an implicit assumption that adult drinking is more predictable from individual difference as opposed to social factors. Moreover, developmental per- spectives on adolescence and adulthood that suggest major changes in the centrality and influence of peer relationships over this transition would be consistent with this assump- tion. Nonetheless, the importance of other peer processes in adulthood, such as social support as a buffer for depres- sion, suggests that the neglect of peer processes in adult drinking is not well founded. Adulthood is marked by a series of key transitional events, which include the completion of formal education, initiation of stable employment, and establishment of an independent domicile. However, the transitional event that From the Research Institute on Addictions, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York. Received for publication January 10, 2000; accepted August 29, 2000. Supported by Grant 1R01-AA09922-A1 from NIAAA (to KEL). Reprint requests: Kenneth E. Leonard, Research Institute on Addictions, 1021 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14203; Fax: 716-887-2510; E-mail: leonard@ria.buffalo.edu Copyright © 2000 by the Research Society on Alcoholism. 0145-6008/00/2411-1666$03.00/0 ALCOHOLISM:CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH Vol. 24, No. 11 November 2000 1666 Alcohol Clin Exp Res, Vol 24, No 11, 2000: pp 1666 –1679