Abstract

The researcher examined the relationship between dating violence and drinking behaviors. Study participants included 440 Korean College students(184 males and 256 females) currently involved in heterosexual dating relationships. Participants' ages ranged from 17 to 30(M=20.08, SD=1.89). Questionnaires and psychological tests used included: Straus' Conflict Tactics Scale, Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test(AUDIT), Cooper's Revised Drinking Motives Questionnaire(DMQ), and Index of Family Alcohol Use. Research designs were 2(gender) × 2(experience of inflicting dating violence), i.e. 2-way MANOVAs. Results suggest students who drink one or more times a week are more likely to commit acts of violence toward their dating partners than students drinking less often. The study revealed males tend to drink with higher social, enhancement, conformity and coping motives than females. The study also showed that students inflicting dating violence drank with higher coping motives than students who did not. Males showed more hazardous, dependent and harmful drinking patterns than females. Also, students who had inflicted dating violence showed a higher degree of these characteristics (hazardous, dependent and harmful drinking patterns) along with a greater family history of alcohol use than participants who had not inflicted dating violence. The findings showed significant 2-way interactions in dependent and harmful drinking patterns. Simple main effect analysis revealed that differences in dependent and harmful drinking patterns in males are more significant than the same differences in females.