Prevalence of partner violence in same-sex romantic and sexual relationships in a national sample of adolescents

Abstract

Purpose To present the first national prevalence estimates of psychological and physical intimate partner violence between adolescents in same-sex relationships. Methods Analyses focus on 117 adolescents aged 12–21 years (50% female) from Wave II of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health who reported exclusively same-sex romantic or sexual relationships in the 18 months before interview. Items from the Conflict Tactics Scale were used to measure partner violence victimization. Data analysis included computation of prevalence estimates and a logistic regression analysis to assess associations between sociodemographic characteristics and violence victimization. Results Almost one-quarter of adolescents with same-sex romantic or sexual partners reported some type of partner violence victimization; about 1 in 10 reported physical victimization. Significant sex differences were found (OR = .29, CI = 0.08, 1.00), with males being less likely than females to report “any violence.” Of six other sociodemographic characteristics examined, importance of religion (OR = .27, CI = 0.07–1.07) and school size (OR = .32, CI = 0.09–1.11) were associated with victimization at the p < .10 level. Adolescents who reported that religion was important to them and adolescents who attended larger schools were at lower risk of “any violence.” Conclusions As with opposite-sex relationships, psychological and minor physical violence victimization is common among adolescents involved in same-sex intimate relationships. Males reporting exclusively same-sex relationships were less likely than females to report experiencing the violence behaviors examined.