Citation

Ritter K, Lookatch SJ, Schmidt MR, Moore TM. Subst. Abuse Res. Treat. 2019; 13: e1178221819884328.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Libertas Academica)

DOI

10.1177/1178221819884328

PMID

31798302

PMCID

PMC6868565

Abstract

The current study examines how different levels of past aggression combined with self-reported levels of alcohol use impacted lab-based aggressive responding. Data were collected from 160 male undergraduate college students. Participants completed online measures of drinking (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test) and past aggression (Buss Perry Aggression Questionnaire) prior to a lab session assessing aggressive responding [Point Subtraction Aggression Paradigm (PSAP)]. Regression analyses revealed participants with "high" levels of past alcohol use and a history of "high" aggression were more likely to respond aggressively on the PSAP, a trend primarily driven by those with a history of physical aggression. For proactively aggressive participants, the risk for aggressive responding is greater in individuals with a history of physically aggressive behavior as they report higher alcohol use, relative to those "low" in past aggression. The interaction of alcohol use and past aggression was associated with continued aggressive behavior.

© The Author(s) 2019.

Language: en

Keywords

alcohol use; gender; physical aggression; point subtraction aggression paradigm