A research team has received a grant to study alcohol-fuelled acts of violence among intimate partners. This comes in the context of heavy drinking leading to acts of violence among many people. One particular area of concern is with students. When college-aged drinkers imbibe too heavily, the risk for physically harming a romantic partner rises considerably.
What if there was a way for heavy drinkers to monitor their alcoholic intake and blood-alcohol levels in real time, before an intimate situation cascades into physical violence?
This is a question that Virginia Tech researchers have been considering. According to the lead scientist, Meagan Brem: “If we can identify a cut-off where students’ risk for perpetration [of violence] would be highest, we might be able to perform just-in-time delivery of interventions to prevent perpetration.”
Brem is directing researchers in the development of a study where self-identified heavy drinkers use pocket-sized electronic devices to monitor their drinking habits, alcohol levels, mood, and behaviour.
The study, initially supported by seed funding from the institute, has recently secured a $434,491 grant from the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, commonly called an R21 grant, as part of a National Institutes of Health program to support research projects in the nascent stages of development.
Brem and her professional and student colleagues aim to assemble a group of 100 heavy-drinking men and women students who have self-reported histories of intimate partner violence who will then be expected to report their drinking habits and other information for 30 consecutive days.
The study relies on simple methods that require only a hand-held breathalyser, a smartphone app, and quick daily reports.
Each day during the 30-day study period, participants will receive prompts through their phone at five specific times that will ask them to submit results from the provided breathalyser and to answer a brief survey about how they feel when they had their last drink, and other pertinent questions.
Even though participants’ survey answers might be hard to quantify, the breathalyser information is not.
Brem expects to get objective data about student drinking and the likelihood that someone could perpetrate violence against an intimate partner. Studies have shown that adults will often under-report the number of alcoholic beverages they have consumed.
The participant blows into the breathalyser, which connects to a smartphone via Bluetooth to record the numbers. The researchers are keen to identify exact blood-alcohol concentration levels when there might be the greatest likelihood that they would perpetrate sexual assault or intimate partner violence.
