Alcohol use is more likely than marijuana use to lead to violence between partners, a new study has found.
Researchers from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and colleagues in studies of college students found that men under the influence of alcohol are more likely to perpetrate physical, psychological or sexual aggression against their partners than men under the influence of marijuana.
Women, on the other hand, were more likely to be physically and psychologically aggressive under the influence of alcohol but, unlike men, they were also more likely to be psychologically aggressive under the influence of marijuana.
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The researchers' goal was to find correlations between alcohol and marijuana use and the potential for physical, psychological and sexual violence against partners.
Two studies included male and female college students who were at least 18 years old, had been in a relationship for at least a month that involved two days a week of face-to-face contact, and had consumed alcohol in the previous month.
The subjects completed an online diary once a day for 90 days.
The studies are among the first to investigate the timing of alcohol and marijuana use and intimate partner violence in college students.
The study of male participants is published in the journal Addictive Behaviors and the study of female participants is published in the journal Psychology of Addictive Behaviors.
The study of men found that odds of psychological, physical and sexual violence increased with subsequent use of alcohol. Specifically, odds of physical and sexual abuse increased on days where any alcohol was consumed and with each drink consumed.
Odds of psychological abuse increased only on days when five or more drinks were consumed.
Marijuana use was unrelated to violence between intimate partners.
The study of college women found that alcohol use increased the odds of physical and psychological aggression while marijuana use increased the odds of psychological aggression.
Another study by the authors and psychology doctoral student Sara Elkins looked at women arrested for domestic violence.
This study, published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, found that when women used marijuana they were less likely to perpetrate physical violence.
