(provided by candidate): A better understanding of the relationship between perceived control, alcohol use, and relationship violence could inform the development of effective secondary and tertiary intervention efforts. The present study is proposed as a first step toward testing a theoretical model of the relationship between perceived control, aggressive alcohol expectancies, alcohol use during aggressive acts, and actual relationship abuse. Multiple indicators of each of these variables will be completed by a large sample of college students at a large open enrollment state university. The decision to conduct this research in a university setting stems from the results of several studies that have found that college students engage in as many, and possibly more, abusive behaviors as married couples in the general population. Therefore, college students may be an ideal population for theory development and early intervention with high-risk individuals. The theoretical model will be evaluated with structural equation modeling. It is hypothesized that perceived control will be a significant predictor of early relatively mild abusive behaviors and that aggressive alcohol expectancies will partially mediate this relationship. It is also hypothesized that the effect of expectancies on actual abuse will be moderated by alcohol use during aggressive acts. If this model is validated, it could facilitate identification of high-risk individuals before serious violence occurs. Furthermore, this model could guide development of interventions based on increasing perceived control and challenging aggressive alcohol expectancies.
