Do Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies Interact With Trauma Exposure to Influence Intimate Partner Violence? An Examination Among Couples With Alcohol Use Disorder

Abstract

Emotion regulation (ER) processes are directly associated with intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration. ER also underlies two salient and commonly co-occurring risk factors for IPV: trauma exposure and alcohol use disorder (AUD). However, the relationship between trauma exposure and ER has rarely been explored in dyadic contexts. Thus, this study examined the extent to which trauma exposure and adaptive and maladaptive cognitive ER strategies were related to IPV perpetration in a sample of couples with AUD. We also examined whether ER strategies moderated the relation between trauma exposure and IPV. Participants were adult romantic couples (N = 100 couples) with AUD and physical IPV in their current relationship. Data analysis was conducted using a multilevel mixture modeling framework, focusing on level 1 (within person) associations. Four separate models were run to examine the interactive effects of trauma exposure and both adaptive and maladaptive ER strategies on psychological and physical IPV outcomes. Greater trauma exposure and maladaptive ER were associated with greater psychological IPV perpetration. Greater adaptive ER was marginally associated with less physical IPV. Contrary to hypotheses, no interaction effects emerged. While not all hypotheses were supported in this examination, results suggest that the associations among trauma exposure, ER, and IPV warrant further attention as a potential treatment target for individuals and couples.