Alcohol consumption and physical violence among adolescents: which is the predictor?

Abstract The scope of this integrative review was to investigate the association between alcohol consumption and physical violence in the literature, with an emphasis on identifying the predictor between them. A search was conducted in the Lilacs, Medline and SciELO databases, adopting “violence,” “alcohool drinking” and “adolescent” as descriptors. It included articles published between 2005 and 2014 that analyzed the association between alcohol consumption and physical violence using multivariate analysis. Of the total of 1667 articles located, 29 met the inclusion criteria. Alcohol consumption was investigated more as a predictor of involvement in physical violence when the teenager is the perpetrator or the victim of violence, with a significant association found in 19 studies. However, when victimization was investigated as a predictor (7 studies), most of these (6) revealed no significant association with the intake of alcoholic beverages. The consumption of alcohol has proven to be the predictor of physical violence for both the teen perpetrator and for the adolescent victim of violence. However, having been the victim of violence in childhood and adolescence may also lead adolescents to alcohol consumption.