Prevention Collaborative - REDUCING HARMFUL ALCOHOL USE

KNOWLEDGEHUB

Reducing Harmful Alcohol Use

POTENTIAL FOR ADDRESSING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND CHILDREN

Excessive or harmful alcohol use is a risk factor for both intimate partner violence and child maltreatment. Reducing harmful alcohol use is an underused but promising strategy to reduce violence in the family. Alcohol use is neither necessary nor sufficient for abuse to occur, but it can serve as an accelerant and trigger for violence. Moreover, because men and women strongly associate violence with men’s drinking, harmful alcohol use provides an entry point for discussing couple relationships, violence, and related issues.

This page gives key resources and selected examples.

01 Alcohol use—especially binge drinking by men—is linked to increases in both the frequency and severity of intimate partner violence, and it is associated with child maltreatment and negative outcomes for children

Alcohol increases the likelihood and severity of violence in several ways:

It affects people’s cognitive and problem-solving abilities.
It lowers inhibitions.
It increases risk-taking, making individuals less aware of, or concerned about, the consequences of their actions.

Social expectations that link aggression to men’s drinking may exacerbate the physical effects of intoxication. Alcohol use can become the source of couple conflict related to finances, infidelity, or other family stressors.

“IN THESE LESSONS, THEY WOULD ASK US, ‘IN A DAY, HOW MUCH ALCOHOL DO YOU TAKE?’ YOU SEE? ‘IN A WEEK, HOW MUCH DO YOU TAKE?’ SO, IN COUNTING, I REALIZED THAT IT IS ACTUALLY A LOT BECAUSE I NEVER USED TO COUNT….SO, IT OPENED UP MY MIND TO SEE THAT IF I TOOK AS MUCH ALCOHOL AS I DID, THEN I TOOK A LOT OF ALCOHOL. SO, I SHOULD REDUCE.”

PARTICIPANT IN CETA PROGRAMME IN ZAMBIA, IN MURRAY, S. M., ET AL. (2021)

02 Interventions have effectively reduced harmful use of alcohol and its negative consequences

Research has identified multiple means to reduce harmful drinking, but few evaluations of alcohol interventions measure their direct impact on partner violence or child maltreatment.

Interventions that work to reduce harmful alcohol use include:

Brief counselling interventions delivered by trained lay providers
Treatment and self-help groups
Community-based interventions to reshape the drinking environment
Policy-level interventions, such as reducing the density of alcohol retail locations, changing permitted alcohol sales times, increasing alcohol prices, and banning alcohol advertising

03 Great scope exists to develop and test interventions that include both alcohol use and gender-transformative work

Evidence shows that gender-transformative interventions, including with couples, can reduce alcohol use, intimate partner violence, and violence against children. These interventions, however, typically include limited (if any) content or counselling on alcohol use. This suggests untapped potential to better integrate skills-based strategies to reduce harmful drinking into gender-transformative work with couples.

NOTE: Reducing harmful alcohol use is a strategy under both the United Nations framework to reduce violence against women (RESPECT) and the United Nations strategy to reduce violence against children (INSPIRE).

The RESPECT framework includes alcohol misuse prevention interventions under the ‘Services ensured’
The INSPIRE framework includes it under ‘Implementation and enforcement of laws’.