Parrott, Dominic; Halmos, Miklós; Stappenbeck, Cynthia ; Moino, Kevin (2021). Intimate Partner Aggression During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Associations With Stress and Heavy Drinking.

What impact did the COVID quarantine have on family relationships?

Researchers aimed to see if domestic aggression increased during the height of the quarantine. 510 participants completed questionnaires about COVID stressors, intimate partner aggression, and heavy drinking during April 2020.

Results? Rates of physical and psychological aggression in partners significantly increased when people were staying at home during COVID. There was a relationship between stress from COVID and committing partner aggression, but only for those who did not drink heavily.

You might associate heavy drinking with harmful behaviors like violence, but these results show that stress affects those who do not drink heavily, and it is associated with interpersonal aggression too. Research shows that stress created from life-changing experiences, like natural disasters, increases partner aggression. COVID created new stressors for people. Check in with friends and family, especially those who seem stressed from the worldwide changes. Psychological support, finding and giving positive compliments, encouraging peaceful conflict resolution, and taking a time-out before anger gets out of hand can prevent domestic violence and further harm!