An Integrative Model of Alcohol-Facilitated Intimate Partner Aggression Perpetration in Sexual and Gender Diverse Couples.

Abstract

Objective: Sexual and gender diverse (SGD) individuals are at heightened risk for intimate partner aggression (IPA) perpetration relative to their heterosexual and cisgender peers. Alcohol is a well-established cause of IPA perpetration in cisgender, heterosexual couples; however, minimal research has investigated the alcohol-IPA perpetration link in SGD couples. The relative lack of work in this area is a major barrier to addressing this health disparity. SGD individuals experience unique stressors related to their and/or their partner's intersecting minoritized identities that are critical to understanding alcohol-IPA etiology and informing culturally affirming intervention programming.

Method: We advance prior work by members of the authorship team (see Parrott et al., 2023a; Shorey et al., 2019) to propose an integrative theoretical model that invokes (1) the I³ Model to organize risk and resilience factors at the individual and dyadic level, and (2) Alcohol Myopia Theory to explain the mechanism by which proximal alcohol use facilitates IPA as a function of individual differences in those factors.

Results: This integrative model provides a framework to understand how the confluence of stigma, minority stressors, proximal alcohol use, and other factors contribute to IPA perpetration in SGD couples.

Discussion: Application of this integrative model has potential to facilitate more rigorous research (e.g., intensive longitudinal designs, dyadic analysis) focused on putative risk and resilience factors across the social ecology. Further, the model provides guidance for intervention development by identifying how individual (e.g., minority stress), relationship (e.g., relationship functioning), and structural factors (e.g., SGD stigma) interactively contribute to alcohol-facilitated IPA perpetration.