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A Pilot Test of a Just-In-Time Text-Based Intervention to Reduce Alcohol Use and Intimate Partner Aggression Perpetration
ABSTRACT
Background:
Acute alcohol intoxication is a well-established contributing cause of intimate partner aggression (IPA) perpetration, highlighting the importance of intervening proximal to drinking episodes when risk of IPA is elevated to reduce alcohol-facilitated IPA. Just-In-Time (JIT) interventions are designed to provide support when needed.
Objective:
This pilot study evaluated the feasibility, acceptability, and pre-post changes following a text-based JIT intervention to reduce alcohol use and IPA perpetration.
Methods:
As part of a larger study, 121 at-risk individuals who reported past-month heavy drinking and IPA perpetration were randomized to the JIT intervention (n = 63) or waitlist control (n = 58). The current analyses focus only on those individuals who received the JIT intervention, which included alcohol reduction strategies as well as emotion regulation and distress tolerance skills adapted from a web-based intervention shown to have initial promise for reducing heavy drinking and IPA perpetration. Participants received an average of 10 JIT messages over a 2-week period. After the intervention period, 54% (n = 34) of intervention participants completed a follow-up survey.
Results:
Qualitative and quantitative data support both the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention. Moreover, large intervention effects were observed for reductions in drinking (d’s = .80-.81; p’s < .001) and non-significant small-to-medium effects for reductions in IPA outcomes (d’s = .19-.34; p’s = .07-.31).
Conclusions:
This promising and low-resource intervention addresses a critical need to intervene to reduce alcohol-facilitated IPA via a text-based JIT approach that can be widely disseminated to deliver skills proximal to periods of high risk for IPA.
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