Randomized Controlled Trial of an Attention-based Intervention for Alcohol-facilitated Intimate Partner Aggression

Joel G Sprunger, Purdue University

Abstract

This research examined a theoretically-based attention bias modification (ABMT) intervention for reducing alcohol-facilitated intimate partner aggression (IPA). As the task trains attention away from aggressive cues, I expected that alcohol’s myopic enhancement of salient non-aggressive information would reduce aggression-related biases and IPA. A community sample (87.4% European American) of heterosexual couples (N = 28) was recruited in which at least one member of each couple endorsed past-year minor physical IPA perpetration and heavy drinking. Couples completed questionnaires that assessed typical and problematic alcohol use, anger problems, and perpetration of intimate partner aggression. One heavy-drinking and partner-violent member of each couple continued in the study to engage in alcoholic beverage administration, assessment of visual aggression cue biases, and a competitive aggression paradigm ostensibly with their partner. The other member of the couple was dismissed. Physical and verbal IPA perpetration were measured using a white noise blast-based aggression task simulating interaction with their intimate partner. The ABMT, relative to the control, buffered against negative affect and reduced biased attention toward aggressive cues as indicated by a) a facilitated response time when a neutral target was surrounded by aggressive distractors and b) elimination of the anger-driven dwell time on aggressive cues. Intervention condition, IPA risk factors, and aggression attention biases were unrelated to laboratory IPA perpetration. The findings suggest that an ABMT designed to train attention away from aggression-related information may be a highly-portable intervention for disrupting aggressogenic cognitive patterns in the context of alcohol intoxication, even though this may not confer a reduction in aggressive behavior.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Eckhardt, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Clinical psychology

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