Drug Use and Intimate Partner Violence Among College Students: An In-Depth Exploration

College students experience an extremely high level of violence among intimate partners during their college careers, with prevalence rates ranging between 20% and 50%. Because intimate partner violence (IPV) among college students is such a widespread problem, it is important to understand the factors that contribute to this type of abuse. Studies using a variety of samples demonstrate that drug use is one such factor. However, research to date fails to identify specific types of drugs linked to college students' use of violence against intimates. In an attempt to fill this void, this exploratory study uses data from the Relationship Characteristics Study, which was conducted in 2001 and includes a sample of 1,938 college students, to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the relationship between college students' drug use and IPV perpetration than the current literature allows.