Evaluation of Putative Moderators of Relations Between Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) and Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) Among Transgender Emerging Adults

Background and Purpose: Risk factors for interpersonal victimization, such as intimate partner violence (IPV), among sexual minority individuals have been identified including: substance use, forms of trauma, minority stressors, as well as other individual, relationship, and structural factors. Yet, our current understanding of how global risk factors such as adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) (a) increase risk for experiences of IPV among gender minorities and (b) how the influence of ACEs may be mitigated by modifiable psychosocial factors is rudimentary. This gap in the research literature hinders efforts to tailor trauma-informed health and mental health intervention services for gender minority individuals. The aim of this study was to describe the potential moderating effects of (a) substance use involvement, (b) relationship characteristics, (c) social support, and (d) connection to the LGBTQ+ community on relations between childhood ACEs and recent IPV victimization in a sample of transgender emerging adults.

Methods: 248 emerging adults who identify as transgender (ageM = 22.61, 38.7% non-White, 24.3% Latine) were recruited via the Internet using the CloudResearch participant recruitment platform. Participants answered a 20-minute survey measuring substance use, lifetime traumas, romantic relationships, sexual-minority related stressors, and structural influences on violence exposure. Recent substance use involvement was assessed using validated brief screeners of alcohol risk behaviors (AUDIT), substance use problems (DAST-10) and negative consequences of substance use (SIP-R). In addition to measures of childhood ACEs and recent IPV experiences, participants also reported their total social support, connection to their local LGBTQ+ community, and five measures of relationship quality (relationship satisfaction, partner respect, relational aggression and victimization and dyadic adjustment). All measures were brief with established psychometric properties.

Results: Hierarchical multiple regression (HMR) analyses focused on identifying significant moderators of the predictive relation between childhood ACEs and recent IPV experiences. All analyses were conducted in SPSS version 28. In 10 separate regression equations, total ACEs and an interaction term between ACEs and a modifiable psychosocial variable were entered as predictors of total recent IPV experiences. No significant moderators of the relation between childhood ACEs and recent IPV experiences were found. Of all regression equations, the ACE scores remained a statistically consistent predictor of total IPV scores. Of the ten predictor variables, all three of the risky substance use screener total scores (i.e., the AUDIT, DAST-10, SIP-R) as well as four of the five relationship functioning variables (i.e., Relationship Satisfaction, Dyadic Adjustment, Relational Aggression, and Relational Victimization) demonstrated statistically significant independent effects on total scores for IPV. Social Support, Connectedness to the LGBT+ Community, and Partner Respect were not statistically significant predictors of total IPV scores.

Conclusions and Implications: Our findings have implications for efforts to tailor health care or counseling services to emerging adults who identify as transgender and are at high risk for experiences of IPV. The findings of this exploratory study suggest that modifiable psychosocial variables such as substance use problems and the dynamics of romantic relationships may be targeted in counseling or health care services to transgender emerging adults in efforts to reduce their risk for future IPV experiences. These results also emphasize that intervention programs designed to reduce the long-term effects of childhood ACEs on gender minorities may include foci on substance use reduction and enhancement of healthy romantic relationships.