Sleep Quality and Emotion Dysregulation as Risk Factors for Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration Among College Students

Abstract

College populations have an elevated risk of impaired sleep, with 60% of college students showing disturbed sleep patterns. Sleep disruption is associated with difficulty utilizing emotion regulation processes. When examined in experimental, laboratory-based paradigms and cross-sectional survey studies, sleep impairment and emotion dysregulation were associated with violence perpetration, including intimate partner violence (IPV). However, no studies have comprehensively measured IPV within a college population to examine how shared variance between sleep disruption and emotion dysregulation relates to IPV perpetration while controlling for known correlates such as alcohol use. The current study tested the hypothesis that impaired sleep is associated with emotion dysregulation and IPV. The data obtained from college students (N= 1,018) at two universities were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results indicated that the shared variance between sleep disruption and emotion dysregulation positively related to physical and psychological IPV that did not vary by gender. The site of data collection affected the strength but not the direction of relationships between sleep disruption, emotion dysregulation, and physical and psychological violence. These novel results support the interpretation that sleep disruption and emotion regulation are potential points of prevention and intervention for IPV perpetration.