(PS1-C72) Problem Alcohol Use, Stress, and Severe Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant public health concern, with much more known about risk for victimization versus perpetration. The I3 Theory of Violence (Finkel, 2008) considers how impelling forces, instigating factors, and disinhibiting factors interact to increase risk for IPV perpetration. Alcohol use is one such disinhibiting factor (Crane et al., 2014; Martino et al., 2005; Shorey et al., 2014; Stuart et al., 2013), though the relationship between alcohol use and aggression may be particularly nuanced (Crane & Eckhardt, 2013; Shorey et al., 2014). Global stressors and emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, appear to increase risk for problem alcohol use (Pollard et al., 2020) and IPV perpetration (Gosangi et al., 2021; Roesch et al., 2020). Stress, both acute and chronic, may be an impelling factor that exacerbates self-regulation resources and increases one’s propensity for aggressive behavior.

The current study is part of a larger online survey study assessing IPV risk during the COVID-19 pandemic (N=246). The present analyses examined the associations between problem alcohol use (M = 17.38, SD = 8.97), COVID-19 stress (M = 17.70, SD = 4.97), lifetime interpersonal trauma victimization (44.9% of sample), gender, and perpetration of severe physical IPV in a sample of people in a relationship in the past year (N = 158; 51.9% female; age M = 31.62 years, SD = 6.97). A zero-inflated Poisson regression model was used to account for the high frequencies of zero in the outcome. One hundred and twenty-four individuals (78.5%) endorsed having perpetrated severe physical violence in their relationship in the past year. 

For the binomial portion of the model, a significant interaction between problem alcohol use and COVID stress emerged (B = 0.02, SE = .01, p < .001), such that at low and average levels of COVID stress there was a relationship between problem alcohol use and severe physical IPV perpetration; at high levels of COVID stress, this relationship was not significant. Of those who perpetrated severe physical IPV, trauma history (B = 0.16; SE = 0.03; p < .001), gender (B = 0.12; SE = 0.03; p < .001), problem alcohol use (B = 0.05, SE = 0.01, p < 0.001) and COVID stress (B = 0.07, SE = 0.01, p < 0.001) predicted greater severity. A small interaction between problem alcohol use and COVID stress emerged (B = -0.003; SE = 0.001; p < .001), such that the relationship between problem alcohol use and violence severity was strongest at lower levels of COVID stress. This interaction may reflect that at high levels of COVID stress other factors not captured here may better predict violence perpetration.

Findings suggest that the relationship between problem alcohol use and violence perpetration is impacted by stress, but not in the way we would anticipate. Future research should consider I3 theory to examine how other instigating factors (e.g., psychological aggression) and additional impellors (e.g., being sick) interact to increase risk of violence perpetration.