Link Between Soldiers' Alcohol Problems and Spouse Abuse Varies by Race

It's clear that drinking problems can be red flags for domestic violence. Now new research suggests that different kinds of drinking patterns - heavy drinking versus being an alcoholic - predict spouse abuse in different ways.

Those predictors may also vary by race, according to a study of more than 24,000 U.S. Army soldiers - all of them men.

"The study tells us that the reasons for interpersonal violence are different for people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds," said lead researcher Nicole Bell. "And we don't fully understand what's involved."

More than 7,900 of the soldiers were identified as perpetrators in spouse-abuse incidents that had been substantiated and recorded in a registry compiled by the Army. The research team linked that information with surveys completed by the soldiers - well before the spouse abuse event - which provide information on drinking and other behaviors.

How reliably a factor - like being a heavy drinker - can predict future violence depends on the race/ethnicity of the solider, said Bell, a vice president of Social Sectors Development Strategies Inc., a research firm based in Boston.

The study appears in the current issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. Bell's firm receives funding from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

In the study, men who said they drank more than 14 alcoholic beverages a week were grouped as heavy drinkers. Heavy drinking, taken on its own, predicts spouse abuse for all three racial/ethnic groups - white men, Hispanic and African-American men - though the odds are greatest for whites followed by Hispanics, the study found.

Once the researchers considered demographic factors related to drinking, such as age and occupational grade, heavy drinking no longer seems to be a predictor of spouse abuse for African-Americans, although it still is for whites and Hispanics, Bell said.

Problem drinking is distinguished from heavy drinking by the occurrence of alcohol-related behaviors and consequences such as trouble with the law, workplace difficulties or drinking in hazardous settings. Problem drinking is also associated with spouse abuse but in a different way from heavy drinking, Bell said.

"For African-American men, problem drinking or symptoms of alcohol dependence seem to be more important predictors of spouse abuse than heavy drinking," she said.

However, while problem drinking can be a predictor of spouse abuse for African-Americans, once things like depression, family problems and social supports are taken into account, problem drinking is no longer a significant predictor.

By contrast, the research did find that problem drinking is a potent predictor of whether an African-American spouse abuser will be intoxicated during the spouse abuse event, Bell said. That predictor association is strongest for African-American men, versus white or Hispanic men, the study found.