1 - (SYM 21) Intimate Partner Violence Among Sexual Minority Individuals in Consensual Non-monogamous Relationships

Objectives. Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious public health issue with deleterious effects on the health of diverse individuals, families, and society. Unfortunately, IPV is often overlooked in marginalized populations, such as those in consensual non-monogamous (CNM) relationships in which all partners consent to having more than one intimate relationship. Deduced from literature, CNM sexual minority individuals may be at elevated risk of IPV due to factors related to their intersecting, stigmatized identities. These factors can be categorized into three levels – individual (e.g., gender minority identity), relational (e.g., romantic jealousy), and external factors (e.g., CNM minority stress). Thus, within a sample of CNM sexual minority adults, we sought to 1) examine the prevalence of recent IPV experiences, and 2) identify associated risk and protective factors.

Methods. We collected self-report data from a community sample of 230 CNM sexual minority adults and two of their intimate relationships. The majority of our sample (Mage = 29.6, SDage = 7.6) identified as women/feminine (47.6%), bisexual (40.4%), racial/ethnic minority (51.7%), and in polyamorous relationships (52.2%). With relationship data nested within participant data, we used Multilevel Logistic Regression Modeling to assess associations between risk and protective factors and IPV experiences within the past year.

Results. Findings demonstrated a high prevalence of any form of IPV (19.6%), with trans/nonbinary individuals (OR = 2.27, p = .035) at increased risk. For risk factors, both CNM-specific (e.g., CNM minority stress, OR = 1.97, p </span>< .001) and general risk factors (e.g., jealousy, OR = 1.88, p = .002) were significantly associated with higher odds of experiencing physical IPV. Protective factors. such as open communication (OR = 0.77, p = .042) and relationship quality (OR = 0.65, p = .001), were significantly associated with lower odds of experiencing psychological IPV.

Conclusions. Findings provided insight into the complex and nuanced experiences with IPV among sexual minority individuals in CNM relationships. Results can inform clinical guidelines for the development of culturally-sensitive IPV interventions for this underrepresented population.