Intimate Partner Violence In Homosexual Relationships: The Evaluation In Terms Of Social Support And Internalized Homofobia

The present study examined the issue of intimate partner violence in LGB’s in Turkey. Research focused on the prevalence and the types of violence that ocur among gay and lesbian partners, the relationships between internalized homophobia and intimate partner violence and the relationships between social support and intimate partner violence. The research participants comprised of 323 adult LGBs inclusive of 105 lesbians (%32,51), 148 gays (%45,82) and 70 bisexuals (%21,67). In the research, “Demographic Information Form”, “Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support”, “The Revised Conflict Tactics Scales” and “Internalized Homophobia Scale” have been used as data collection tools. The collected data were analyzed with SPSS. Results suggested that there are no significant differences between participants’ exposure to intimate partner violence according to their sexual orientation. However, the average of sexual violence among gays was significantly higher than the average of lesbians and bisexuals. Also the average of internalized homophobia prevalence among
gays was significantly higher than the average among lesbians. It was also found that, the average of prevalence of reconciliation of lesbians was significantly higher than the average among gays. The average of perceived social among those subjected to partner violence is significantly lower than the average among those who are not. Psychological, physical and sexual violence prevalence increases as perceived family social support diminishes. Internalized homophobia also increases as perceived social support decreases. There are no significant differences between help-seeking and sexual orientation could be found.