Alcohol : Violence in the Home

by National Institute of Health

(Page 2 of 2)

Intimate Partner Violence

Research on intimate partner violence (IPV) demonstrates a high rate of co-occurrence of violence and alcohol use by one or both partners. In a representative sample of American families, Kaufman Kantor and Strauss found that heavy drinking by the husband was associated with husband-to-wife marital violence, independent of social class. Long-term studies (i.e., longitudinal research) also have shown a relationship between a husband's drinking early in marriage and husband-to-wife violence later in the marriage. In a sample of newlyweds under 30 years of age, husbands who were heavier drinkers before marriage were more likely to be violent toward their wives in the first year of marriage. A husband's heavy premarital drinking also was predictive of severe violence in relationships that were high in conflict, but not in low-conflict relationships. This, again, is consistent with the view of alcohol as a facilitator rather than an instigator of aggressive behavior.

Rates of IPV vary by race and ethnicity, as does the relationship of alcohol use to IPV. According to data from the 1995 National Study of Couples, the rate of IPV among African American couples is approximately 30 percent, more than twice as high as the rate among European American couples (11.5 percent) and also higher than the rate among Hispanic couples (17 percent). The relationship of alcohol use to IPV also varies. Nineteen percent of European American husbands and 24 percent of Hispanic husbands who drank at least five drinks a week committed IPV, as opposed to 40 percent of African American husbands who drank. Differences between race/ethnic groups suggest that factors may predispose some people to both drinking and violence; however, these predispositions likely act in concert with the psychopharmacological effects of alcohol.

A number of studies have examined the role that alcohol plays in IPV among young adults. The Buffalo Newlywed Study compared couples who experienced only verbal aggression, only moderate aggression, or only severe aggression and found that drinking by husbands was more likely to occur in instances of severe physical violence than in instances of moderate physical violence or verbal aggression. Among couples who had experienced both verbal and physical aggression, drinking by the husband was more likely in instances of physical violence than in instances of verbal aggression. Testa and colleagues reported that more acts, and more severe acts, of violence occurred when the husbands had been drinking than when the husbands had not been drinking. In addition, some limited evidence suggests that wives are more likely to be physically aggressive when their husbands have been drinking. This aggressive behavior by the wives may be a reaction to aggression by the husbands, or the wives may behave aggressively on their own initiative.

Although not focused on a young adult population, research on treatment also suggests a relationship between acute alcohol use and the occurrence of IPV. This research suggests a causal relationship between drinking and the occurrence of a violent incident on the same day. Murphy and colleagues asked alcoholics and their spouses to report on conflict episodes and whether they involved physical violence. According to the wives' accounts, alcoholic men were more likely to have been drinking during physically violent events. According to the husbands' accounts, the men were likely to have consumed six or more drinks before these violent events. Similarly, Fals-Stewart assessed men entering treatment for alcoholism or domestic violence. He used a timeline followback method to determine the days on which alcohol abuse occurred and, independently, the days on which incidents of marital violence occurred. He found that the incidence of severe violence was much higher on days of heavy drinking (six or more drinks) than on days of no alcohol abuse, and that violence was most likely to occur within 4 hours of drinking. Several other studies have reported that alcohol use is more common at the time of serious physical assault events than near the time of less serious events.

Finally, other evidence not specifically focused on young adults indicates that behavioral couples therapy for alcoholism reduces husband-to-wife marital violence. Prior to treatment, higher rates of IPV were found among samples of male alcoholics than in the general population. Significantly less violence occurred in the year after treatment compared with the year prior to marriage. In addition, the number of severely violent incidents decreased to rates similar to those seen in the general population. More recent research has corroborated this early finding. O'Farrell and colleagues, studying a sample of 303 male alcoholics undergoing behavioral couples therapy, found that reduction in husband-to-wife violence was correlated with greater treatment involvement. The more involved the males were in their alcoholism treatment, the less they drank and the less aggressive they were toward their spouses.

Conclusions

Young adults experience more violence than older age groups. Among young adult males, the most severe violence tends to occur in bars and clubs; young adult females are more likely to experience violence in the home. In both locations, the circumstances that provoke intoxicated aggression appear to arise from personality differences among people and from characteristics of the situations. People who are generally angry, impulsive, and less agreeable seem more likely to engage in intoxicated aggression. Bars with permissive atmospheres increase the probability of intoxicated aggression, and the more alcohol consumed, the greater the likelihood of injury. In domestic violence situations, alcohol use by the husband is predictive of severe violence only in marriages already high in conflict. All of these findings are consistent with the hypothesis that intoxication mainly serves to make conflict situations worse.

People often become intoxicated before getting into conflict. Evidence from experimental, survey, longitudinal, and event-based research suggests that alcohol intoxication contributes to violence. A better understanding is needed of the pharmacological effects of alcohol on the decisionmaking involved in aggressive interactions. Models such as alcohol myopia, which proposes that alcohol reduces attention to cues that inhibit aggression, and the anxiolysis disinhibition model, which proposes that alcohol dampens the anxiety associated with inhibitory cues, provide useful frameworks for a better understanding of intoxicated aggression. However, research has not yet identified which model provides the best explanation. Although much has been discovered about the relationship between alcohol use and violence, much research remains to be done. More understanding of alcohol's effects on people with different propensities toward aggressive behavior is needed. Individual differences in hostility, anger, impulsiveness, agreeableness, and alcohol expectancies have been identified as important, but it still is not clear how and why people with these characteristics seem to be more likely to engage in intoxicated aggression. A fuller understanding of these processes will help inform more effective approaches to preventing and treating alcohol-involved violent behavior.

About the Author

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