The role of violence as a triggering mechanism for alcohol-related problems in women and the role of alcohol-related problems in triggering violence against women are the foci of this research. Violence is defined as childhood violence by parents, childhood sexual violence (familial or nonfamilial), and spousal violence. By examining several models of the connections between women's alcohol problems and family violence, prevention and treatment strategies for both family violence and alcohol problems can be strengthened. This research study will include five samples, with 100 women respondents in each sample: (1) clients in a local shelter for battered women; (2) clients in a local outpatient alcoholism program; (3) women from local DWI education groups; (4) outpatient clients in treatment for depression; and (5) a random household sample from the local population. This sampling design combines the advantages of a random sample with the advantages of four clinical or nonrandom samples. Two face-to-face interviews will be conducted eighteen months apart. The interviews will include information on childhood violence, spousal violence, childhood sexual violence, lifetime and current drinking history, alcohol-related problems, depression, utilization of community resources/treatment, parental and spousal alcohol problems, and demographics for childhood and present family. Questions concerning the mutual effects between family violence and alcohol-related problems will be addressed with both quantitative and qualitative data. Analysis of covariance with childhood violence scores as the independent variables and adult alcohol-related problems as the dependent variable will be performed. Multiple regression wit longitudinal data and path analysis with cross-sectional data will be used to address the relationship between spousal violence and alcohol abuse. Theme and content analyses will be used to trace the temporal order between drinking and violence histories and develop the relationships between these events.
