NCJ Number
227328
Journal
Substance Use & Misuse Volume: 44 Issue: 5 Dated: 2009 Pages: 684-701
Date Published
2009
Length
18 pages
Annotation
Using data from the 1999 Welfare, Children, and Families project (WCF)--which involved a probability sample of 2,280 low-income women with children living in low-income neighborhoods in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio--this study examined whether experiences of relationship violence before age 18 and in the past year were linked to the frequency of intoxication as adults.
Abstract
The study found that sexual coercion before age 18 and minor and severe physical assault in the past year were independently linked with greater frequency of intoxication as an adult, after controlling for a range of sociodemographic variables; however, the effect of physical assault before age 18 failed to persist with adjustment for relationship violence in the past year. Contrary to expectations, psychological aggression and sexual coercion in the past year were not statistically significant in predicting the frequency of intoxication as adults. Thus, the results clearly indicate that minor and severe forms of physical violence are linked with intoxication frequency, which brings with it the potential for health problems and abusive behavior for the victims. The WCF project is a household-based, stratified random sample of 2,402 low-income women living in low-income neighborhoods in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio. This study focused on the 2,280 women who were 19 years old or older at the time of the 1999 interviews. Intoxication frequency, the focal outcome variable of this study, measures the most fundamentally problematic aspect of alcohol consumption, i.e., getting drunk. This measure required respondents to estimate the number of occasions during which they were drunk in the past 12 months. Variables related to psychological aggression, minor and severe physical assault, and sexual coercion were measured. 4 tables and 54 references