The relationship between drinking and violence in an adolescent population: does gender matter?

While many studies have examined the relationship between alcohol and violence in adult populations, little research has examined this relationship in adolescent populations. Using a large nationally representative sample of older adolescents from the Monitoring the Future Survey, this article found heavy alcohol and polydrug use to increase the likelihood of violent offending even after controlling for other variables like home environment, grades in school, and race. When separate models predicting violence were examined for both males and females, alcohol and polydrug use continued to increase the likelihood of violence for both sexes. Attaining high grades in school decreased the likelihood of violence for both males and females. Several differences did emerge across gender-specific models for other variables, however. African-American males were more likely to engage in violence compared to White males, but race was not a significant predictor of violence in the female sample. In addition, residing in a two-parent household significantly decreased the likelihood of violence only for females.