Higher Risk of Drunken Violence Linked to Suppressed Anger
Individuals who suppress anger on a day-to-day basis are more likely to become violent while drunk than those who do not suppress anger, according to new research. A recent study published in the scientific journal Addiction, conducted by Stockholm University’s Swedish Institute for Social Research and the Norwegian Institute for Alcohol and Drug Research, found that drunkenness does increase the chance of violence, but only for those who strongly suppress their anger during sobriety.
The researchers obtained their data by surveying almost 3,000 young adults from the Norway population on their heavy episodic drinking and violent behaviors. Participants completed self-reported surveys, once at the age of 16–17 and again at the age of 21–22. The time difference between the initial and follow-up surveys was intended to eliminate other confounding factors that could influence the cause-and-effect results, such as time-related invariants as the participants aged. In this way, the researchers will able to effectively monitor the frequencies of the participants’ drinking and violent behaviors.
Based on self-reported data, the researchers categorized the participants into three groups ranging on their levels of anger suppression. For those who were low- to medium-suppressors of anger, researchers found no relationship between drunkenness and violence. However, for those participants who reported high levels of anger suppression, researchers found a 10% increase in the likelihood to become intoxicated was correlated with a 5% increase in the likelihood to engage in violent behavior.
While the data did show that the level of alcohol consumption was related to violent behavior, the researchers point out that the rate of violent acts related to intoxication that occur is dependent upon a drinker’s likelihood to suppress anger during sobriety. This means that those who express anger regularly have no variance in their violent activity during either sobriety or drunkenness, yet those who do not regularly express anger during sobriety are more likely to engage in violence while in a drunken state. More research will be needed to confirm this conclusion.
According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 35% of violent-crime victims report that their offenders were under the influence of alcohol. Several studies have concluded that alcohol is the most frequently consumed substance of abuse among child-abusing parents, and is one of the leading contributors in child maltreatment and neglect. Alcohol consumption is also related to 66% of occurrences of domestic violence (violence between partners). Hopefully following the conclusion of this recent study, researchers might further investigate episodes of alcohol-related aggression and to help identify more effective methods of treatment, prevention, and social services.
