A book on alcohol and partner aggression, written in part and edited by UND medical school researcher, Sharon Wilsnack, PhD, reports analyses of how people’s drinking, both men’s and women’s, is associated with partner aggression, as both victim and perpetrator.  It provides an in-depth view of current research on partner aggression, and the role alcohol plays, in the United States, Canada and eight Latin American countries.

Editor Myriam Munne, left, greets Jose Jose, a popular Latin American singer, who holds the new book, while Sharon Wilsnack, in blue, and Maristela Monteiro of PAHO look on.

Wilsnack, Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor of Clinical Neuroscience, Grand Forks, is one of four editors of the book, “Unhappy Hours: Alcohol and Partner Aggression in the Americas,” published in English and Spanish by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in Washington, D.C.

“This important work adds to our knowledge about partner aggression, and may help to develop policy responses to preventing and addressing such violence in the United States, Canada and Latin American countries,” Wilsnack said.

Findings reported in the book suggest that a person’s level of alcohol consumption is strongly associated with being both the perpetrator and the victim of partner physical aggression, she said.  The relationship between drinking pattern and partner aggression was especially strong among persons who reported that alcohol was involved in the most severe incident they had experienced in the past two years.

Consistent findings across all ten countries included in the analyses suggest that the relationship between alcohol consumption and intimate partner violence is similar across diverse cultures and drinking patterns, she added.

“It’s striking how consistently people’s drinking was connected to their experiences of partner aggression,” said Wilsnack who, along with her colleagues, hopes the book’s message reaches leaders in government and policy-makers. “If we can reduce heavy drinking, we may be able to reduce aggression between intimate partners.”

A Dec. 4 book launch at PAHO headquarters in Washington, D.C., featured a panel discussion about intimate partner violence, addresses by the director of PAHO and other dignitaries and a performance by Latin American singer and recovering aloholic Jose Jose.

Professors Wilsnack and her husband, Richard Wilsnack, PhD, professor of clinical neuroscience, have been studying problem drinking in women for more than 30 years, with funding from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism of the National Institutes of Health and other agencies.

Other editors of the book are Kathryn Graham, PhD, and Sharon Bernards, researchers with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Toronto, and Myriam Munne of the Research Institute of the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.  Except for chapters on the U.S. and Canada, authors of all other chapters are Latin American.