Violence to Self and Others: The Relationship between Minority Stress, Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration, and Suicidal Ideation

Sexual minority individuals are at an elevated risk for suicidal ideation (SI) and intimate partner violence (IPV) compared to their heterosexual counterparts (Haas et al., 2010; Messinger, 2017). SI and IPV perpetuation generally co-occur (Blosnich & Bossarte, 2011), and while they share similar risk factors (e.g., Franklin et al., 2017), LGB+ people might have a unique relationship between SI and IPV due to minority stress. Minority stress is associated with greater levels of SI and IPV perpetration in sexual minority people (Baams et al., 2015; Longobardi & Badenes-Ribera, 2017). Past research has explored these variables, but it has not analyzed how minority stress might explain a co-occurrence of SI and IPV in sexual minority individuals. The current study analyzed the relationship between the propensity to use physical IPV, SI, and minority stress in a sample of 270 LGB+ university students in Southeast Texas. Propensity for physical IPV was expected to directly predict SI. Additionally, minority stress was expected to partially mediate the relationship between the propensity for physical IPV and SI. Structural equation modeling tested the hypotheses. Contrary to predictions, direct and indirect pathways were not statistically significant. Of note, the study included primarily bisexual women, which could prevent these findings from generalizing to sexual minority individuals more broadly. Future studies could diversify their samples, use different measures, and analyze longitudinal data to further explore this research question.