Alcohol Outlet Density and Young Women's Perpetration of Violence Toward Male Intimate Partners

J Fam Violence. 2013 Jul 1;28(5):459-470. doi: 10.1007/s10896-013-9516-y.

Abstract

This paper examines the relationships between alcohol outlet density, alcohol use, and perpetration of intimate partner violence (IPV) among young adult women in the US. Data were from Wave III of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health; N = 4,430 in present analyses). Multinomial logistic regression was used to examine occurrence of past year IPV perpetration toward a male partner based on tract-level on-premise and off-premise alcohol outlet density, controlling for individuals' demographic, alcohol use, and childhood abuse characteristics and neighborhood socio-demographic factors. Higher off-premise alcohol outlet density was found to be associated with young women's perpetration of physical only IPV, controlling for individual-level and ecological factors. Alcohol use had an independent association with IPV perpetration but was not a mediator of the outlet density-IPV relationship. Findings suggest that considering alcohol-related environmental factors may help efforts aimed at preventing young women's use of physical violence toward partners.

Keywords: alcohol use; domestic violence; drinking; female perpetration; neighborhoods; off-premise outlet density; young adults.