An Event-Level Examination of Sex Differences and Subjective Intoxication in Alcohol-Related Aggression

Laboratory-based experimental research has demonstrated that the pharmacological effects of alcohol can increase aggressive responding. Given mixed findings and concerns regarding task validity, however, it remains uncertain whether this effect holds constant across men and women and whether variability in subjective alcohol intoxication contributes to alcohol-related aggression. In this investigation, the authors used 4 years of event-level data in a sample of 1,775 college students (140,618 total observations) to provide a test of laboratory-derived findings on the link between alcohol and aggression in an alternative methodology. They found support for several such findings: (a) Within-person increases in alcohol intoxication, as assessed by estimated blood alcohol concentrations (eBACs), were associated with increases in the probability of aggression at the drinking-episode level; (b) this association was significantly stronger among men than among women; and (c) within-person variability and between-persons individual differences in levels of subjective alcohol intoxication were associated with aggression over and beyond eBACs. Cross-methodological replication can reduce the impact of constraints specific to experimental studies on conclusions regarding alcohol's relation with aggression.