Longitudinal Association Between Intimate Partner Violence and Alcohol Use in a Population Cohort of South African Women

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a common traumatic stressor for women worldwide, especially for women living in low-and-middle-income countries. One of the most common correlates of IPV victimization is alcohol use, but the dynamics of IPV and drinking among women are not well understood. Although some research suggests that women drink in the aftermath of IPV to cope with distress related to the violence they experienced, other studies imply that higher levels of alcohol use among one or both partners in a relationship make violence more likely. In this study, we examine this question in a secondary analysis of a longitudinal study of a population cohort of pregnant women in South Africa ( N = 1238) using a Bayesian approach to latent growth curve structural equation modeling. Results indicate that on average, IPV decreases and alcohol use increases over time and that these trajectories are associated with each other. Further, results suggest that although IPV drives drinking (rather than the other way around), higher average levels of alcohol use are associated with a slower decrease in IPV. Findings have implications for future research on the association between IPV and alcohol use, as well as for clinical intervention for women who experienced IPV.

Neurobiology of Aggression—Review of Recent Findings and Relationship with Alcohol and Trauma

“…Alcohol use can lead to harmful effects both to the drinker and others; for instance, a study assessing violence-related injuries across 14 countries showed that at least 60% of the injuries involved alcohol use on the part of the victim, the perpetrator, or both [ 272 ]. Several other studies have demonstrated a strong positive correlation between alcohol abuse and violence [ 273 , 274 , 275 ], especially domestic violence, where married alcoholic men were at least six times more likely to commit domestic violence compared to others [ 276 ]. Dose-dependent studies of alcohol-related aggression in humans (using doses from 0 to 1.0 g/kg) also revealed a highly significant positive linear relationship between alcohol dose and aggression in both men and women [ 277 , 278 ].…”

The nexus between harmful alcohol use and intimate partner violence, a case study

“…Several research studies (Roman & Frantz, 2013;Tenkorang, Asamoah-Boaheng & Owusu, 2020) report that just like the global trends South Africa has as many as a third of women who experience physical violence from their intimate partners in their lifetime. In one South African longitudinal study by Yalch et al (2022), it was found that in fact, IPV victimization drives alcohol use rather than the other way around (Yalch et al, 2022, p.1). This supports the assertion that women drink alcohol as a way of coping with the IPV they experienced (Khantzian, 1999).…”