Although frequent heavy drinking patterns are related to the occurrence of intimate partner violence (IPV) among men, the role of these women's drinking patterns in IPV is poorly understood. Moreover, there is little data that addresses the joint influence of men's and women's drinking on both members'IPV perpetration and victimization. This proposal involves a three wave longitudinal study designed to examine husband and wife binge drinking as prospective predictors of verbal and physical marital aggression. The project emphasizes the moderating influence of executive cognitive functioning and negative affect on the relationship between binge drinking and IPV. Methodologically, this application involves mailed questionnaires to a community sample of households to recruit couples who are married or have been living together for at least one year and are between the ages of 18 and 45. The couples will be screened with respect to husband and wife drinking behavior. Approximately 300 families in which the husband, the wife, both, or neither meet criteria for binge drinking will be recruited for a two year longitudinal study. The couple will be assessed at baseline and one and two years later. The assessments will focus on executive cognitive functioning, negative affect, verbal and physical aggression, and alcohol-related variables. In addition, couples will be interviewed with respect to the most severe verbal and most severe physical aggression events in the relationship in order to conduct event-based analyses. Statistical analyses will examine the relationships among husband and wife binge drinking, and their interaction on husband and wife marital aggression and whether ECF or negative affect moderate these relationships. The results will provide important insights with respect to the role of women's drinking, alone and in combination with men's drinking, on the occurrence of IPV.
