An important caveat to consider is the fact that many aggressive acts occur outside the context of alcohol consumption and misuse. Alcohol-related aggression’s ability to explain variance across these aggression domains may be an artifact of the heightened levels of alcohol misuse and other externalizing behaviors present in our sample. Our findings may or may not replicate in a sample that is comprised primarily of social or casual drinkers. Longitudinal studies that track individuals’ aggressive behavior before and after their initial exposures to alcohol misuse will be crucial in determining whether alcohol-related aggression is able to best explain overall aggressive tendencies. It may be that alcohol misuse serves as a litmus test of whether an individual will perpetrate harm upon others in other contexts, perhaps due to its disinhibiting and ubiquitous qualities (Giancola, 2002). More work is needed to determine whether alcohol-related aggression plays such a role.
