Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2007 Sep;68(5):706-13.
doi: 10.15288/jsad.2007.68.706.

Intimate partner violence perpetration and problem drinking among college students: The roles of expectancies and subjective evaluations of alcohol aggression

Nicole Fossos  1 , Clayton Neighbors, Debra Kaysen, M Christina Hove
Affiliations

Intimate partner violence perpetration and problem drinking among college students: The roles of expectancies and subjective evaluations of alcohol aggression

Nicole Fossos et al. J Stud Alcohol Drugs. 2007 Sep.

Abstract

Objective: The present research examined the effect of alcohol aggression expectancies and subjective evaluations of alcohol's effects on aggression in intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration among college students. We were interested in determining the extent to which these relationships differed across gender.

Method: A total of 780 (57.3% female) incoming heavy drinking college freshmen who were between the ages of 18 and 25 years completed self-reported measures of IPV perpetration, alcohol use and problems, and alcohol aggression expectancies and subjective evaluations of those expectancies as part of the baseline assessment for a larger social norms alcohol intervention study. Analyses evaluated the effect of alcohol aggression expectancies and subjective evaluations of those expectancies on IPV perpetration.

Results: Results indicated that problem drinking was positively associated with IPV perpetration for those who were lower (beta = .32, p < .001) versus those who were higher (beta = .07, p = ns) in alcohol aggression expectancies. Among men, there was a significantly stronger relationship between problem drinking and IPV perpetration among those who evaluated alcohol's effects on aggression more favorably (beta = .41, p < .001) versus less favorably (beta = .11, p = ns). Among women, there was not a significantly stronger relationship between problem drinking and IPV perpetration at less favorable (beta = .17, p < .05) versus more favorable (beta = .11, p < .06) evaluations of alcohol's effects on aggression.

Conclusions: Findings suggest that, in understanding IPV perpetration, it may not be sufficient to evaluate expected alcohol effects without also including whether those effects are viewed as good or bad. Findings also suggest that the relationship between alcohol problems and IPV perpetration may be stronger and more straightforward for men than for women.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration as a function of alcohol aggression expectancies and alcohol-related problems
Figure 2
Figure 2
Intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration as a function of gender, subjective evaluations of alcohol’s effects on aggression, and alcohol-related problems
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Aiken LS, West SG. Multiple Regression: Testing and Interpreting Interactions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; 1991.
    1. Archer J. Sex differences in physically aggressive acts between heterosexual partners: A meta-analytic review. Aggress Viol Behav. 2002;7:313–351.
    1. Barnes GE, Greenwood L, Sommer R. Courtship violence in a Canadian sample of male college students. Fam Relat. 1991;40:37–44.
    1. Burden JL, Maisto SA. Expectancies, evaluations and attitudes: Prediction of college student drinking behavior. J Stud Alcohol. 2000;61:323–331. - PubMed
    1. Caetano R, McGrath C, Ramisetty-Mikler S, Field CA. Drinking, alcohol problems and the five-year recurrence and incidence of male to female and female to male partner violence. Alcsm Clin Exp Res. 2005;29:98–106. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms