Longitudinal Transitions in Intimate Partner Violence among Female Assigned at Birth Sexual and Gender Minority Youth

Abstract

Female-assigned at birth sexual and gender minorities (FAB SGM) are at elevated risk of experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV), yet little longitudinal research has been conducted with this population. In the current study, we attempted to understand how patterns of IPV victimization and perpetration, measured across a wide range of IPV behaviors (psychological, physical, sexual, cyber, and SGM-specific), changed over time for FAB SGM youth. Participants came from a longitudinal cohort study of FAB SGM late adolescents and young adults (FAB400; N = 488) and included anyone who reported a romantic partner at one of the first three waves (six months apart; N = 433). Latent class analysis (LCA) was run at each wave to determine the best-fitting class structure across IPV experiences. These were followed up with latent transition analyses (LTAs) to determine patterns of movement between classes over the course of the three waves. Lastly, we looked at the effects of staying with the same romantic partner on transitions. We found that the same three-class structure replicated across all three waves of the study. That class structure identified no/low, psychological, and high IPV classes at each wave. In the LTA, when transitions occurred for FAB SGM, they were much more likely to transition to a class defined by lower likelihoods of experiencing IPV (i.e., psychological to no/low) than they were to a class defined by higher likelihoods of IPV (i.e., psychological to high). However, we found that FAB SGM youth were less likely to transition to a less severe IPV class if they maintained the same serious romantic partner across waves. This finding, in particular, suggests that IPV is often relationship specific for FAB SGM and that efforts to reduce IPV in SGM communities must consider intervening at the relationship level to effect meaningful change.

Intimate Partner Violence Among Sexual Minority Women: A Scoping Review

“…Factors linked to victimization and perpetration include factors such as relationship fusion (Miller et al, 2001), lower self-esteem (Miller et al, 2001), higher levels of independence (Miller et al, 2001), hostility, aggression, and anger (Lewis et al, 2017; Pepper & Sand, 2015), instability and negative worldview (Pepper & Sand, 2015), and alcohol use (Lewis et al, 2017). Using longitudinal latent class analysis of 433 AFAB SGM individuals, Swann et al (2020) found that, over time, participants were more likely to transition to a “less severe” IPV class except when they maintained the same romantic partner across waves. The authors suggest that these findings point to IPV as being relationship specific in this population.…”