The Effects of Alcohol Intoxication and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies on Lab-Based Partner Aggression

Abstract

Intimate partner aggression (IPA) is a serious national health concern that affects an alarming number of individuals and can lead to substantial psychological and physical suffering. Situational risk factors that arise in the immediate context of IPA reflect statelike influences that trigger aggression. Because these factors are more variable and fluctuate according to the situation, they are potentially promising targets for prevention and intervention efforts (e.g., through cognitive and behavioral interventions). Within this realm, two factors in particular appear to play a prominent role in the etiology of IPA: alcohol intoxication and cognitive emotion regulation strategies. In contrast to prior correlational work, the present study experimentally manipulated alcohol consumption and emotion regulatory strategies to assess their individual and combined effects on IPA, which was measured both observationally and through self-report. It was expected that both alcohol intoxication and anger rumination would increase IPA perpetration, whereas reappraisal would result in decreased IPA perpetration. Further, intoxication and emotion regulation strategies were expected to have interactive effects on IPA perpetration such that rumination would enhance associations between alcohol intoxication and aggression, whereas reappraisal would attenuate the relationship between alcohol and IPA perpetration. Hypotheses for the study were partially supported. Findings show that participants in the alcohol condition generally displayed greater IPA than participants in the placebo condition. Emotion regulation strategy condition was not found to affect IPA. When examining only the effects of alcohol and emotion regulation strategy condition, emotion strategy use did not moderate the relationship between alcohol intoxication and IPA. However, alcohol and emotion regulation strategy conditions were found to interact with trait levels of rumination and reappraisal to predict IPA. The implications of these results, future directions for research, and implications for IPA intervention and prevention strategies are discussed. (Harned, 2002;Straus, 2004).Although most research examining IPA has focused on heterosexual couples, IPA also occurs among heterosexual and same sex couples at similar rates (McClennen, 2005).Further, researchers agree that it is important to systematically examine IPA perpetration among both genders (Holtzworth-Munroe, 2005;Johnson, 2006;Straus, 2006) and among both heterosexual and same-sex couples (Fahmy & Fradella, 2014;McCLennen, 2005). 3University students are particularly at risk for IPA, with past-year prevalence rates ranging from approximately 20% to 50% (Cogan & Fennell, 2007; Forke, Myers, Catallozzi, & Schwartz, 2008;Riggs & O'Leary, 1996;Straus, 2004 Identifying demographic and dispositional risk factors provides invaluable information on which individuals are more likely to be aggressive towards their partners.However, these risk factors do not provide information about the specific circumsta...

Online Crowdsourcing as a Quasi-Experimental Method for Collecting Data on the Perpetration of Alcohol-Related Partner Aggression

“…While inconsistent with the other aggression paradigms discussed in this section, the Proximal Antecedents to Violent Episodes Scale (PAVE; Babcock et al, 2004) is a 20-item self-report measure that assesses IPA propensity using Likert-type responses with higher scores representing a greater likelihood of aggressing across situations (e.g., my partner interrupts me while I’m talking). Watkins (2014) experimentally manipulated alcohol consumption in order to assess the impact on IPA propensity, measured using a modified version of the PAVE in which participants were instructed to respond as if each situation were in real time. Results indicated that individuals in the alcohol condition displayed greater IPA propensity as measured by the provocative items on the PAVE Scale compared to individuals in the placebo condition (Watkins, 2014).…”

“…Watkins (2014) experimentally manipulated alcohol consumption in order to assess the impact on IPA propensity, measured using a modified version of the PAVE in which participants were instructed to respond as if each situation were in real time. Results indicated that individuals in the alcohol condition displayed greater IPA propensity as measured by the provocative items on the PAVE Scale compared to individuals in the placebo condition (Watkins, 2014). The use of an electronic PAVE Scale is well suited to pairing with anger provocation for online assessment, particularly to the extent that responses to the PAVE are subject to situational factors.…”