Patterns of Alcohol Use, Traumatic Stress, and Women's Revictimization Risk

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD

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Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant: Using data from a nested longitudinal case-control study on workplace violence, this proposal will be among the first to examine prospectively the role of alcohol as both predictor and consequence of significantly distinct yet interrelated forms of violence against women, intimate partner violence and workplace violence. Although there is an ample literature attesting to the strong positive association between violent victimization and alcohol abuse, an over-reliance on cross-sectional data may mask the temporality of this relationship as well as potential social and behavioral predictors of both alcohol abuse and violence revictimization. This study will use longitudinal data analysis methods to a) investigate the direct and indirect effects of violence victimization on alcohol intake and patterns of alcohol abuse b) identify social and behavioral risk and protective factors of alcohol abuse and c) evaluate two hypotheses of women's vulnerability to revictimization: vulnerability to revictimization potentially varies by degree of adult attachment security and according to PTSD symptom clusters. The proposed research will elucidate the impact of patterns of harmful drinking on risk of violence victimization across the lifespan in a heterogeneous sample of employed women, thus providing public health professionals with an opportunity to develop treatment and prevention intervention activities for women with multiple trauma histories. These prevention and treatment aims are in accordance with the current strategic plan of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Characterizing the complex pathways between violence victimization and alcohol abuse as well as understanding the subsequent behavioral risk factors for revictimization can lead to refined alcohol abuse treatment and improved services for adult victims of multiple traumas with co-occurring mental disorders.