Meagan Brem
Meagan Brem: Unraveling the link between alcohol and relationship violence
For over a decade, Meagan Brem has been studying the connection between alcohol use and intimate personal violence (IPV), specifically among individuals aged 18-25. This age range is when both alcohol abuse and IPV, defined as psychological, physical, and sexual aggression, are at their peak.
“I have been involved in IPV prevention since middle school; I volunteered with my grandma at domestic violence shelters and continued doing so through college and beyond,” said Brem, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology. “It was not until I started working with domestic violence offenders that I noticed that substance use intervention and IPV intervention were provided separately, even though it was clear to me that substance use and IPV were intricately connected.”
Today, as the faculty director of the Research for Alcohol and Couples Health (REACH) Lab, Brem is not only working on multiple studies related to alcohol consumption and intimate partner violence, but also hopes to develop a mobile app to help prevent such situations.
“The mobile intervention application would give individuals the chance to self-assess whether they are in suitable condition to interact with their partner or drink as much as they planned,” Brem said. “Nothing great can happen after four drinks. If you have approached four drinks in a night, assume you are not in a good place to make decisions or resolve partner conflict.”
According to the National Coalition Against Intimate Partner Violence, nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States. Within one year, this equates to more than 10 million women and men.
Determining the critical blood alcohol content (BAC) level that increases the risk of perpetration or victimization and the events that trigger intimate partner violence are some of the many variables Brem examines during her research. To Brem, understanding what happens on the day an individual is binge drinking and what experiences lead to or instigate IPV could be the key to developing more timely and effective interventions.
Brem, also an Institute for Society, Culture, and Environment (ISCE) Scholar, has collaborated with other researchers to analyze a range of factors that increase the likelihood of alcohol-related partner violence in couples. This includes examining different drinking environments, the influence of assorted alcoholic beverages, barriers to treatment, the efficacy of current intervention resources, and the impact of associated stigma.
In her prior work, Brem surveyed college students over sixty days in which they self-reported their IPV experiences and the number of standard alcoholic drinks they consumed. However, after a night of heavy drinking, college students may have difficulty recalling exactly how much alcohol they consumed.
“I knew there had to be a more accurate way to monitor the amount of alcohol they were consuming in a night and how intoxicated they were when these events were occurring,” Brem said. “ISCE’s support was essential in this process, and with their pilot funding, I was able to restructure the study and integrate breath samples to calculate the students’ level of intoxication more accurately.”
The second rendition of the study was in collaboration with Warren Bickel, director of the Addiction Recovery Research Center and professor with the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, and Alexandra Hanlon, director of the Center for Biostatistics and Health Data Science, all from the College of Science.
The study included the collection of breath samples and self-assessments from roughly 45 Virginia Tech students who drank heavily over thirty days. Through their research, Brem, Bickel, and Hanlon found that over 54% of students surveyed experienced IPV at least once during that time span.
With this data and a recently awarded National Institutes of Health grant, Brem and her team plan to expand this study over two years with a larger sample pool, with hopes of developing a mobile intervention app that people can access during relational tension before experiencing IPV.
“It could provide immediate personalized recommendations based on an individual’s BAC to let them know they should hydrate or eat, avoid driving, and if they have passed the level of giving or seeking proper consent,” Brem said.
In a related stream of research, Brem is currently involved in two additional studies. The first is a qualitative study with clinicians and couples across Virginia who are impacted by heavy drinking and mutual partner violence.
“I am interested in understanding the unique area of Appalachia and what the barriers are to treatment amongst couples, whether it be limited resources, the stigma surrounding them, lack of childcare, or the price of treatment,” Brem said.
The second is a pilot study with college-aged couples where either one or both partners identify as bisexual. In this study, both partners will complete daily surveys for sixty days, assessing the stressors related to being a sexual minority and how these factors impact their relationship with their partner, alcohol consumption, and IPV.
Brem hopes that through her research, education on alcohol consumption, as well as prevention and intervention efforts, can be improved across college campuses and for couples everywhere.
“I am hoping that the data connects in all three studies and that it points to recommendations for how we can better target alcohol related IPV in various couple contexts in real time, perhaps through mobile intervention,” Brem said. “If these couples have access to something that caters to their specific needs in a moment before IPV occurs and removes the stigma around seeking help, it could lead to better outcomes in these situations,” said Brem.