Alcohol and Marital Aggression in a National Sample of Young Men

This study examined the relationship between alcohol and individual difference factors on one hand and marital aggression on the other hand. Subjects were 320 married and cohabiting men who participated in a nationally representative study of alcohol consumption in young men. Subjects completed scales assessing hostility, self-consciousness, and marital satisfaction, and the Alcohol Dependence Scale (ADS). They also answered two questions concerning marital aggression: whether they had ever hit their spouse while drinking or hit their spouse while sober. The results indicated that alcohol use was strongly related to marital aggression. Furthermore, scores on the ADS interacted with hostility and marital satisfaction to predict marital aggression, with ADS scores related to marital aggression among men who scored high on hostility or low on marital satisfaction.