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Problem Drinking, Jealousy, and Anger Control: Variables Predicting Physical Aggression Against a Partner

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Abstract

Alcohol use and intimate partner violence (IPV) are significantly related, but only a subset of individuals who drink are aggressive and relatively little is known about what moderates this relationship in community samples. Two risk factors, anger control and jealousy, were hypothesized to moderate the relationship between IPV and problem drinking in a sample of 453 community couples. A significant three-way interaction indicated that men with jealousy problems, but not anger control problems, were most likely to show the strongest association between problem drinking and IPV. In accord with the multiple threshold model of IPV, specific combinations of risk factors appeared to represent different thresholds in which problem drinking influenced the likelihood of IPV.

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Acknowledgement

This research was supported in part by NIMH Grant R01MH57985.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794-2500, USA

    Heather M. Foran & K. Daniel O’Leary

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  1. Heather M. Foran
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  2. K. Daniel O’Leary
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Correspondence to Heather M. Foran.

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Foran, H.M., O’Leary, K.D. Problem Drinking, Jealousy, and Anger Control: Variables Predicting Physical Aggression Against a Partner. J Fam Viol 23, 141–148 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-007-9136-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-007-9136-5

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