EMPIRICAL RESEARCH The Perpetration of Intimate Partner Violence among LGBTQ College Youth: The Role of Minority Stress Katie M. Edwards • Kateryna M. Sylaska Received: 18 September 2012 / Accepted: 27 November 2012 / Published online: 12 December 2012 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2012 Abstract Preliminary research suggests that partner vio- lence is a problem among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) college youth. However, there is no study to date with college youth on the factors associated with perpetration of same-sex partner violence, which is needed to inform prevention efforts specific to this population. Thus, the purpose of the current study was to assess how facets of minority stress (i.e., sexual-orientation- related victimization, sexual minority stigma, internalized homonegativity, sexual identity concealment) relate to physical, sexual, and psychological partner violence perpe- tration among LGBTQ college youth (N = 391; 49 % identified as men; 72 % Caucasian; M age: 20.77 years). At the bivariate level, physical perpetration was related to identity concealment and internalized homonegativity; sex- ual perpetration was related to internalized homonegativity; and psychological perpetration was related to sexual-orien- tation-related victimization. However, at the multivariate level (after controlling for concurrent victimization), psy- chological perpetration was unrelated to minority stress variables, whereas physical and sexual perpetration were both related to internalized homonegativity; physical per- petration was also related to identity concealment. These results underscore the utility of understanding partner vio- lence among LGBTQ youth through a minority stress framework. Moreover, the current study highlights the need for a better understanding of factors that mediate and mod- erate the relationship between minority stress and partner violence perpetration among LGBTQ youth in order to inform prevention and intervention efforts. Keywords Dating violence Á Sexual minority Á Gay/lesbian/bisexual Á Minority stress Á Internalized homonegativity Introduction: Literature Review and Study Rationale Partner violence, which includes physical, psychological, and sexual violence towards one’s partner, is an endemic problem in US society, especially college youth. Although the vast majority of the research literature has focused on partner violence among heterosexual youth, there has been a growing focus on partner violence among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth. In a nationally representative sample of high school students reporting only romantic partners of the same sex, 21 % indicated that they had experienced psychological partner violence victimization within same sex relation- ships and 24 % reported physical partner violence victim- ization within same-sex relationships (Halpern et al. 2004). Moreover, in a sample of college students, Porter and Williams (2011) found that being a sexual minority increased one’s risk for experiencing physical, sexual, and psychological same-sex partner violence victimization. In the only published study to assess same-sex perpetration of partner violence among youth, Jones and Raghavan (2012) reported that 43.5 % of LGBTQ college students reported dating violence perpetration within the past 12 months. Despite preliminary work documenting the rates of partner violence among LGBTQ youth, there is no research to date that has focused specifically and comprehensively on the rates and correlates of same-sex partner violence perpe- tration among college students. Having a better under- standing of the rates of same-sex partner violence perpetration and the factors that increase LGBTQ youth’s K. M. Edwards (&) Á K. M. Sylaska Department of Psychology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, USA e-mail: katie.edwards@unh.edu 123 J Youth Adolescence (2013) 42:1721–1731 DOI 10.1007/s10964-012-9880-6