Need of belonging, Mexican men's normative socialization, and machismo as the root of couple problems, the role of alcohol use, and intimate partner violence

Abstract

This research aims to understand and describe the etiology and mechanisms that maintain the association between alcohol consumption and violence perpetrated by Mexican men against their female partners. An exploratory qualitative study was conducted using the focus group technique, with the participation of 14 men recruited through a marketing campaign in social networks, all with a history of intimate partner violence and alcohol consumption (assessed using the AUDIT and a semi-structured questionnaire). The data analysis was done manually, based on grounded theory, and subjected to three triangulation types. According to the results, the etiology of the association between alcohol consumption and intimate partner violence is the inadequate satisfaction of the need for bonding (attachment), imposed by the normative socialization of being a man, culturally known as machismo; an association that is maintained mainly by emotional dysregulation, lack of cohabitation skills in couples and poor management of the family economy. The results bring to the table a well-known, but little-considered fact: both alcohol consumption and the exercise of violence are strongly influenced by culture, which makes it necessary to investigate the phenomenon, emphasizing the peculiarities of the population under study. These results can be considered an indicator of the components necessary to develop an intervention that addresses both variables in the Mexican population