Coping styles used by sexual minority men who experience intimate partner violence

This study examined the coping styles used by sexual minority men who have experienced intimate partner violence, including sexual, emotional and physical victimisation, as well as physical injury.

Although sexual minority men experience intimate partner violence at least as often as do heterosexuals, there is currently limited knowledge of intimate partner violence in this community or resources for sexual minority men who experience intimate partner violence.

Cross-sectional design.

Sexual minority men (N = 89) were recruited as part of a national online survey and completed questionnaires assessing lifetime experiences of intimate partner violence as well as various coping strategies. In terms of intimate partner violence, 34·8% of participants reported having been targets of sexual abuse, 38·2% targets of physical abuse, 69·7% targets of psychological abuse and 28·1% had experienced an injury as a result of intimate partner violence during their lifetime.

Canonical correlation analyses found that intimate partner violence victimisation explained 32·5% of the variance in adaptive and 31·4% of the variance in maladaptive coping behaviours. In the adaptive coping canonical correlation, standardised loadings suggested that sexual minority men who experienced intimate partner violence resulting in injury were more likely to use religious coping, but less likely to use planning coping. In the maladaptive coping canonical correlation, sexual minority men who had been targets of intimate partner sexual victimisation and intimate partner violence resulting in injury tended to engage in increased behavioural disengagement coping.

This study revealed several coping behaviours that are more or less likely as the severity of different forms of intimate partner violence increases.

The identification of these coping styles could be applied to the development and modification of evidence-based interventions to foster effective and discourage ineffective coping styles, thereby improving outcomes for sexual minority men who experience intimate partner violence.