A Daily Diary Investigation of Alcohol-Related Aggression

Introduction: Approximately 80% of young adults report having witnessed or experienced bar-related violence in the previous year, with these acts often being accompanied by many monetary, social, and physical costs. Although much effort has been allocated to reducing direct aggression (i.e., physical, verbal aggression), research has only recently begun investigating a subtype of aggressive behavior known as indirect aggression. Indirect aggression focuses on the social exclusion and degradation of one’s social standing and limited research suggests a potential connection between indirect and direct aggression. The current study utilized a daily diary design to examine the co-occurrence of alcohol-related indirect aggression and alcohol-related direct aggression. Specifically, multilevel modeling was used to examine whether these acts were more likely to occur on the same day and whether this relationship remained after controlling for known covariates of alcohol-related aggression.

Method: Participants were 105 (80% female) college student drinkers. Mean age was 23.81 (SD = 7.53) years. Students completed baseline assessments of their typical alcohol use, dispositional aggression, and trait self-control, and up to 14 consecutive, daily surveys regarding the prior days’ drinking behavior and aggression. Alcohol consumption occurred on 515 of the 1294 days (39.8%), and alcohol-related direct aggression occurred on 18.7% of drinking days while alcohol-related indirect aggression occurred on 23.2% of drinking days.

Results:  To determine the incremental influence of covariates, separate models were tested including no covariates, dispositional aggression, baseline alcohol use, trait self-control, and all covariates. Findings indicated that alcohol-related indirect aggression positively predicted alcohol-related direct aggression, B = 0.09, SE = 0.03, p = .005 and remained a significant predictor of alcohol-related direct aggression after controlling for each covariate individually (i.e., dispositional aggression: B = 0.09, SE = 0.04, p = .013; baseline alcohol use: B = 0.13, SE = 0.05, p = .009; trait self-control: B = 0.08, SE = 0.04, p = .031), as well as concurrently, B = 0.12, SE = 0.06, p = .041.

Conclusions: Overall, findings revealed that alcohol-related direct aggression was more likely to occur on days in which alcohol-related indirect aggression occurred, supporting a co-occurrence of alcohol-related aggression. Importantly, this association was found above the influence of baseline alcohol consumption, trait self-control, and dispositional aggression. Findings inform intervention development efforts aimed at reducing violence. Although future research is needed to confirm that indirect aggression may precede direct aggression, current study findings highlight the relevance of prevention efforts aimed at identifying indirectly aggressive behavior in order to prevent aggression from escalating to more severe violent acts.