The consequences of harmful alcohol consumption are far-reaching continue to be delineated throughout its research literature. It has been established that alcohol consumption has the potential to alter and mediate a variety of human behavior sets, including violent and aggressive actions. Dating violence is a phenomenon that can occur across age ranges, leading to long-term trauma which can affect all parts of a victim’s life. Alcohol has often found to be a common denominator in many reports of dating violence, but little substantive research has explored to link between the two. This study aimed to characterize the relationship between alcohol consumption and dating violence in a college student-based population in Belgium.
The study consisted of 649 college students from a French-speaking university in Belgium who reported having at least one dating partner in the preceding 12 months as well as reporting alcohol use in that same timeframe (N=649, 71% female). The participants completed questionnaires which detailed their experiences with the following 5 aspects of dating violence using the Conflict in Adolescent Dating Relationship Inventory: threats, relational dating violence, sexual dating violence, physical dating violence, emotional/verbal dating violence. Participants also reported when specific dating violence events occurred, with respect to how recently alcohol was consumed before/after the instance. Lastly, participants’ harmful alcohol consumption was characterized using the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT-C). The data was analyzed using Chi Square Tests of Independence and multinomial logistic regressions.
Results of the study found that, overall, a positive correlation between AUDIT-C scores and dating violence perpetration (p<0.001) in male students; this correlation was not found in female students. Additionally, results indicated a relationship between alcohol use preceding dating violence and alcohol use following instances of dating violence (p<0.001). Lastly, the multinomial regression analysis found that an increase in hazardous drinking led to an increase in perpetration and victimization of dating violence preceded by alcohol use. An increase in hazardous drinking scores led to alcohol use following dating violence events only in perpetrators.
Takeaway: the link between dating violence and harmful alcohol consumption in college students seems intuitive but may in fact have a concrete statistical basis. Further research is needed in this area in order to understand and prevent instances of dating violence and to treat additional consequences of harmful alcohol use.
Glowacz F, Courtain A. Alcohol use and dating violence among college students. European Review of Applied Psychology. 2021;71(1):100608. doi:10.1016/j.erap.2020.100608