Negative Urgency, Emotion Regulation, and Intimate Partner Violence Severity in High Risk Couples with Alcohol Use Disorders

Subst Use Misuse. 2026 May 20:1-9. doi: 10.1080/10826084.2026.2670612. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Alcohol use problems and impulsivity predict intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration. Adaptive cognitive emotion regulation skills may be a protective moderating factor in the relation between impulsivity and IPV perpetration. However, the relationships among impulsivity, adaptive emotion regulation, and IPV perpetration have rarely been studied in a dyadic context. This work examined the moderating influence of both actors’ and their partners’ adaptive emotion regulation skills on the relationship between impulsivity and IPV perpetration after accounting for alcohol use problems.

METHOD: One hundred adult romantic couples completed this study. All couples had a history of AUD and physical IPV in their current relationship. Data analyses were conducted using four mixed effects models with indistinguishable dyads to examine the interactive effects between impulsivity and both partners’ and actors’ adaptive emotion regulation skills in predicting physical and psychological IPV perpetration severity.

RESULTS: Contrary to hypotheses, no interaction effects emerged. Contrary to prior literature, adaptive cognitive emotion regulation skills were not related to IPV perpetration for either actors or partners after accounting for impulsivity and alcohol use problem severity.

CONCLUSIONS: For couples at high risk for alcohol-related IPV, cognitive emotion regulation skills may not be sufficient to prevent perpetration. It is critical to continue examining therapeutically modifiable protective factors against IPV in high risk dyadic contexts.

PMID:42163491 | DOI:10.1080/10826084.2026.2670612