Cleaning up their act: The effects of marriage and cohabitation on licit and illicit drug use

Abstract

We use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to estimate changes in binge drinking, marijuana use, and cigarette smoking surrounding young' adults first experiences of cohabitation and marriage. Both marriage and cohabitation are accompanied by decreases in some risk behaviors, but reductions surrounding marriage are larger and most consistent, particularly for men, Binge drinking and marijuana use respond to these events, especially marriage, but smoking does not.