Daily and situational reports of substance use and dating violence among college students: A 10-week prospective study.

INTRODUCTION: Although the association between substance use and dating violence is well-established in the research literature, there is limited research establishing the temporal co-occurrence of these variables. The primary objective was to examine the temporal relationship between alcohol and drug use and subsequent dating violence using a proximal effects model. METHODS: This prospective study obtained daily diary data and weekly situational reports on abusive relationship events and substance use from 72 college women in dating relationships over a 10-week interval. RESULTS: Significant day-to-day associations were found between substance use and dating violence for women's reports of their own behavior, and that of their male partners. The odds of dating violence were approximately 2.0 times higher on days when perpetrators drank alcohol. Women were approximately 2.0 times more likely to perpetrate dating violence when using drugs, and men were approximately 1.4 times more likely when they used drugs. Estimated blood alcohol concentration levels and binge drinking were associated significantly with dating violence perpetration for women's reports of men's behavior as well as for women's reports of their own aggression. These findings held when examining severe versus minor dating violence as well as any versus no dating violence. CONCLUSIONS: These results further support an association between substance use and partner aggression at daily and situational levels of analysis, extending prior clinical findings to a college dating sample. Taken with previous research findings, our results suggest the need for college sexual assault and dating violence prevention programs to target reductions in substance use.

The use of contingency management and motivational/skills-building therapy to treat young adults with marijuana dependence.

Marijuana-dependent young adults (N = 136), all referred by the criminal justice system, were randomized to 1 of 4 treatment conditions: a motivational/skills-building intervention (motivational enhancement therapy/cognitive-behavioral therapy; MET/CBT) plus incentives contingent on session attendance or submission of marijuana-free urine specimens (contingency management; CM), MET/CBT without CM, individual drug counseling (DC) plus CM, and DC without CM. There was a significant main effect of CM on treatment retention and marijuana-free urine specimens. Moreover, the combination of MET/CBT plus CM was significantly more effective than MET/CBT without CM or DC plus CM, which were in turn more effective than DC without CM for treatment attendance and percentage of marijuana-free urine specimens. Participants assigned to MET/CBT continued to reduce the frequency of their marijuana use through a 6-month follow-up.

A prognostic indicator scale for the treatment of partner abuse perpetrators.

This study examined prognostic indicators for violence recidivism among male domestic abuse perpetrators (N = 95). Seventeen hypothesized prognostic indicators were selected from baseline self-report and collateral partner report data to assess aggression history, psychoactive substance use, severity of relationship abuse problems, and current demographic factors. A total prognostic index, labeled the Partner Abuse Prognostic Scale (PAPS), predicted outcome variables derived from both victim report and criminal justice data and provided unique prediction relative to a pretreatment continuous measure of relationship violence. No moderator effects in prediction were observed across two distinct types of group treatment. Psychological aggression was the only pretreatment variable that consistently added significant prediction of recidivism beyond the PAPS. The PAPS is recommended for research uses involving statistical control or balancing of conditions in studies of partner violence interventions. Further research will be needed to establish cutoffs for clinical case management and treatment planning.

Neurocognitive performance among alcohol dependent men with and without physical violence toward their partners: a preliminary report.

OBJECTIVE: There are high rates of co-occurring alcohol dependence and intimate partner violence (IPV) among men seeking substance abuse treatment. The authors examined neurocognitive performance among treatment-seeking alcohol dependent men with (IPV+) and without reported physical violence (IPV-). METHOD: Twenty-five subjects participated in this pilot study. All participants underwent a neurocognitive battery including, Continuous Performance Test (CPT), California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT), Digit Span, Iowa Gambling Test (IGT), Wisconsin Card Sort (WCST), Trail Making Test, Parts A & B, a visuospatial memory (VSWM) task and the Stroop Color Word Test (SCWT). RESULT: Alcohol dependent participants with IPV (IPV+; n = 9) had more severe deficits in attention, concentration, cognitive flexibility compared to controls (n = 7). Both the alcohol dependent (IPV-; n = 9) and IPV+ groups had significantly more impairments on tasks of impulsivity than the smoking controls. The IPV- group had significantly more impairments on executive functioning compared to smoking controls, but was not significantly different than the IPV+ group. CONCLUSIONS: Our preliminary results suggests that IPV+ males have more severe neuropsychological impairments compared to the smoking control group than did the IPV - group. The implications of these findings are discussed.