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Volume 14 - Number 1 |
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RIA: A Microcosm for Buffalo, The City of Good Neighbors Longtime RIA Supporter to Head Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Committee RIA Scientist Presents a Research to Practice Seminar Select Conference Presentations
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RIA in New OrleansThe annual scientific conference of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy (AABT) was held November 16-19, 2000 in New Orleans. AABT is a professional, interdisciplinary organization which is concerned with the application of behavioral and cognitive sciences to understanding human behavior, developing interventions to enhance the human condition, and promoting the appropriate utilization of these interventions. RIA scientists who participated and the titles of their presentations are:
Research ResultsDrinking, Marriage, & ViolenceDifferences in drinking styles between a husband and wife appear to predict husband-to-wife violence in the early years of marriage, according to a study by RIA researchers Kenneth E. Leonard, Ph.D. and Brian M. Quigley, Ph.D. Drs. Leonard and Quigley investigated the relationship of husband violence, verbal aggression, and a couple’s alcohol use in the first year of marriage with husband-to-wife violence in the second and third years of marriage. Based on data from 414 couples interviewed in the early 1990s as part of Leonard’s Buffalo Newlywed Study, results showed 35.3 percent of the couples experienced at least one incident of husband-to-wife physical aggression in the second year of marriage, 37.3 percent experienced at least one incident of physical aggression in the third year of marriage, and 45.2 percent experienced at least one incident of physical aggression in either year of marriage. “These findings, taken together with other findings from our research program, suggest that heavy drinking, particularly among husbands, predicts a variety of relationship problems, including aggression early in marriage,” according to Leonard. “When the husband is a heavy drinker but the wife is not, it may be that the differences in drinking style create conflict, and that this conflict triggers the violence,” Quigley said. “Psychologists, marriage counselors, and other practitioners in the field need to be attuned to the higher risk for violence in couples where drinking patterns are disparate.” Drinking in a Bar Puts Women at Risk for Male AggressionFifty-seven percent of the women who participated in a recent study at RIA reported experiencing at least one incident of verbal or physical aggression while drinking in a bar. In order to be eligible for the study, the women reported drinking in bars one or more times per week during the preceding three months and were not abstaining from alcohol. Most of the aggression the women experienced was verbal, according to Principal Investigator Kathleen A. Parks, Ph.D., but incidents of physical aggression included being threatened with an object, touched sexually, pushed, slapped, or threatened with a weapon. “As a preventive measure, women should be informed of the relationship between going to bars and the risk for aggression,” according to Parks. “They also should be aware of their own risky behaviors that can attract or escalate aggression from others in a bar, such as greater alcohol consumption and intoxication, drug use, and increased or decreased reactivity when responding to others.” “Alcohol consumption appears to increase the likelihood of sexual assault,” Parks concluded, “by both enhancing a man’s misperception of a woman’s friendly behavior as sexual intent, reinforcing stereotypes of the drinking woman as more sexually available, and decreasing a woman’s ability to correct these misperceptions.” |
Name:
 William R. Greiner, President |
New York State George E. Pataki, Governor |
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