A new study, published in the journal Psychology of Violence, has found the rates of physical and psychological aggression among couples increased significantly during the COVID pandemic, according to Science Daily.
The study, conducted by the researchers of the Georgia State University, said intimate partner aggression increased 6 to 8 times after the implementation of shelter-in-place restrictions due to the COVID pandemic.
Physical aggression increased to 15 acts a year since the pandemic began, while psychological aggression increased to 96 acts per year.
The study findings indicate that pandemic-related stress was strongly associated with intimate partner aggression.
Lead author Dr. Dominic Parrott said, “If you think about it, that [increase] represents an enormous shift in people’s day-to-day lives. It’s the difference between having a bad fight with your partner once a month versus twice a week.”
Dr. Parrott is a professor of psychology and director of the Center for Research on Interpersonal Violence.
The researchers recruited more than 500 participants in April 2020, when there were shelter-in-place restrictions across the U.S.
Dr. Parrott said, “People were suddenly under an enormous amount of stress, and we felt relatively certain that this was increasing aggression and violence. There’s data showing that after natural disasters, for example, when basic resources are lost and people have to live in close proximity, intimate partner violence goes up.”
“Our fundamental aim was to document what was happening as a result of the pandemic,” he added.
Rates of intimate partner aggression remained high among heavy drinkers, but surprisingly, it was also found in non-heavy drinkers who were most affected by COVID-related stress.
“People who aren’t heavy drinkers may be able to prevent stress from affecting their relationships under normal circumstances,” said Dr. Parrott, “but we hypothesized that the extreme events of the pandemic might change that. And that’s how the data played out.”
“Pandemic stress didn’t really tip the scales towards violence among heavy drinkers, but for non-heavy drinkers, all bets were off,” he added.
The study findings suggest that it is important to focus on couples’ acute and chronic stress, irrespective of their alcohol consumption.
The authors noted that policies such as economic relief packages and increased access to childcare and healthcare might help reduce stress and intimate partner aggression.
Dr. Parrott said, “Most people wouldn’t think about intimate partner violence as a reason to offer an economic relief package, but our data suggest that it has potential to be an effective measure/”
“The data also suggest that typical high-risk groups are not the only ones at risk of perpetrating violence in this kind of crisis environment,” he added. “The stress of the pandemic is so profound and so ubiquitous that you need interventions or policies that hit big swaths of the population.”
