Provocation and target gender as moderators of the relationship between acute alcohol use and female perpetrated aggression

Acute alcohol use appears to exert a small but significant effect on female perpetrated aggression in the laboratory but there has been no effort to evaluate comprehensively the situational moderators of this relationship. This preliminary review was intended to explore the moderating effects of provocation and target gender on alcohol-related aggression among females in this understudied area of research. Moderator analyses were conducted on 14 studies. Despite limitations imposed by the sparsity of laboratory based research on alcohol-related aggression among females, initial results suggest that alcohol may exert stronger effects over female aggression following high (d = 0.25, k = 8, p < .01, 95% CI = 0.10–0.40) rather than low (d = −0.07, k = 6, p = .52, 95% CI = −0.29–0.15) provocation and when targets of aggression are female (d = 0.19, k = 9, p = .01, 95% CI = 0.04–0.34) rather than male (d = −0.06, k = 4, p = .61, 95% CI = −0.30–0.18). Results offer initial insight into situational risk factors pertinent to research and treatment of alcohol-related aggression among females while serving as an impetus for future research in this critical, neglected area of study.