Quick summary – I did some brief research (based on two scientific articles) on what the effect of alcohol use has on marital satisfaction. I am including my more thorough investigation below, but I will describe some of the finding here. One study accented the importance of commonality… this means that marital satisfaction was correlated with the degree to which partners engaged in substance use at relatively equal amounts (both drink a lot = more satisfaction than only one drinking a lot ). Divergence in substance intake was associated with decreased marital satisfaction… this does suggest that offering rehabilitation counseling to only one partner in a relationship could have negative effects on the marital satisfaction (so offering counseling to both would be more ideal and arguably more ethical). Moderate substance use (couples who did not abuse substances) was correlated to higher levels of marital satisfaction. In short the research found that marital satisfaction was highest when the couple’s intake was both moderate and relatively the same for each partner.