ALCOHOL AND AGGRESSIVE PERSONALITY STYLES - POTENTIATORS OF SERIOUS PHYSICAL AGGRESSION AGAINST WIVES

This study examined the relationship between alcohol consumption and m arital aggression in a community sample (N = 272) assessed in a longit udinal study at premarriage and at 6, 18, and 30 months of marriage. P articipants completed self-report measures of alcohol problems and tot al alcohol consumption, aggressive personality style, marital aggressi on, marital adjustment, and divorce potential. Husbands' alcohol probl ems were associated with serious aggression at premarriage and at 6 mo nths. Alcohol use interacted with aggressive personality traits in pre dicting aggression at 18 months. Husbands' premarital aggression, but not alcohol problems, was predictive of wives' future steps toward div orce and lower marital adjustment. Results are discussed in relation t o the marital mediational model of alcohol and aggression in marriage and to the need to account for developmental changes in the relation b etween alcohol and aggression during the early years of marriage.