THE ROLE OF ALCOHOL IN FAMILY VIOLENCE.
Contributors: University of Rochester.
Published: 1984
Number of pages: 332
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: This study focused on two previously neglected aspects of family violence: the role of alcohol use in a violent episode and a description of situational factors from the perspective of the batterer rather than the victim.

The study population consisted of men who had been identified as being violent towards their partners and were enrolled in an educational program for batterers at a mental health center. A fourteen page self-administered questionnaire elicited information about the presence and influence of alcohol use during violent arguments, the characteristics of the battering couple, and the presence of physical abuse and alcohol use in the family of origin of the batterer.

The results indicated that the use of alcohol by both subjects and partners was higher than would be expected in the general population. Five of the twenty-one batterers were identified as problem drinkers by the use of the Shortened Form of the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test.

Zero order correlations showed that general alcohol use, chronic drinking, by the subjects was associated with the younger age group, lower occupational status, crowded living conditions, permissive attitudes and increased severity and frequency of the violent episodes.

By contrast, just the presence of alcohol, social drinking during a violent argument, was associated with less severity and a perception of an influence of this use of alcohol by the batterer on the character of the violent episodes. These batterers felt responsible for their behavior while drinking and tended to leave the situation.

The alcohol use by the mother of the subject was associated with the alcohol use of the subject, his SMAST score, the alcohol use by the father, the abuse she received from the father and the abuse she gave to the father. The alcohol use of the father was associated with the abuse he gave to the mother and the lack of permissive attitudes of the subject.

The subjects reported a fair amount of dissatisfaction with their current relationships and this dissatisfaction was associated with being younger, having less education, having patriarchal attitudes, and an increase in the physical force used during the violence.

The nature of the educational program and its low initial enrollment put a limit on the sample size that could be obtained and did not permit pretesting of the instrument. As an exploratory, descriptive study of family violence, it laid the foundation for a larger assessment of the dynamics of family violence with explicit implications for clinical interventions.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-12, Section: B, page: 3770.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER, 1984.

School code: 0188.