Ambivalent Sexism, Alcohol Use, and Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration

Abstract

Research on risk factors for men's perpetration of intimate partner violence (IPV) has shown a high correlation with problem alcohol use. Additional studies, however, indicate that the alcohol-IPV link is neither simple nor necessarily direct and that a range of factors may moderate this relationship. Using a national, community-based sample of 255 men, the present study examined the moderating effects of ambivalent sexism (i.e., hostile and benevolent sexism) on the relationship between alcohol use and IPV perpetration. The findings show that both greater alcohol consumption and high hostile sexism are positively associated with IPV perpetration, and that hostile sexism moderates the alcohol-IPV relationship for perpetration of physical IPV, but not for psychological IPV. Moreover, high levels of alcohol consumption have a greater impact on physical IPV perpetration for men low in hostile sexism than for men high in hostile sexism, lending support to the multiple threshold model of the alcohol-IPV link. Implications of the findings for prevention, intervention, and future research are discussed.

Couples data from north-western Tanzania: Insights from a survey of male partners of women enrolled in the MAISHA cluster randomized trial of an intimate partner violence prevention intervention

“…Alcohol use by men in this sample was a strong risk factor for IPV, in keeping with a large body of evidence [7,8,39]. The complex relationships and interactions between alcohol, attitudes and IPV are now coming under scrutiny in an attempt to better understand how and when alcohol use leads to IPV perpetration [40,41].…”

Considering the Effect of Sexism on Psychological Intimate Partner Violence: A Study with Imprisoned Men

“…Allen, Swan, and Raghavan (2009) reviewed existing studies examining the links between sexist attitudes, including hostile and benevolent sexism scales- Spence and Helmreich's (1972) Attitudes Toward Women Scale and Glick and Fiske's (1996) Ambivalent Sexism Inventory-, and IPV usually assessed via behavioral self-reports (e.g., Conflict Tactic Scale 2 -CTS, Straus, Hamby, Boney-McCoy, & Sugarman, 1996). Their review suggested that sexist attitudes toward women were not consistently related to IPV against women (see also Cross et al, 2017;Herrero, Torres, Rodríguez-Díaz, & Juarros-Basterretxea, 2017; Juarros-Basterretxea, Renzetti, Lynch, & DeWall, 2015). Allen et al (2009) pointed out that the relation between sexism and IPV is more consistent when examining hostile sexism, whereas the association between benevolent sexism and IPV is inconsistent perhaps because benevolent sexism promotes protection of women who adhere to gender roles, but more punishing attitudes toward women who violate gender roles (Glick, Sakalli-Ugurlu, Ferreira, & Aguiar de Souza, 2002).…”

Synergy between Acceptance of Violence and Sexist Attitudes as a Dating Violence Risk Factor

“…One of these explanatory indicators is adolescents' degree of acceptance of violence, although this indicator is generally linked to exposure to previous abusive situations within the family context or to a history of abuse suffered [14,15]. Sexist attitudes have also been associated with the phenomenon of dating violence, fundamentally in a descriptive way [40,41], or with other factors such as alcohol consumption [42]. The interest of the present study is that the role of protagonist is given to the victim, and that its analysis of the factors which contribute to sustaining the role of victim is multidimensional and interrelated.…”