Honors Program

University Honors

Date of Award

5-2017

Thesis Professor(s)

Stacey Williams

Thesis Professor Department

Psychology

Thesis Reader(s)

Lindsey King, Peggy Cantrell

Abstract

This study examined the relation between stigma and reporting of intimate partner violence (IPV) in a sample of men who have sex with men (MSM). It was hypothesized that enacted stigma would result in lower reporting of IPV and that the type of IPV would moderate the relationship between enacted stigma and reporting. Using an online survey, we measured IPV (physical, psychological, and sexual violence) and stigma (perceived, enacted, and internalized). Participants (N = 46) were asked if they had ever experienced any of those forms of violence, as well as if they had ever reported the violence through an online survey. They were then asked how likely they would be to report the violence if it happened again in the future. Responses were analyzed using logistical regression with moderation to determine if a) enacted stigma was associated with lower reporting of intimate partner violence and if b) type of violence moderated stigma and reporting, such that physical violence would have the strongest relation between stigma and reporting of IPV. Results showed that enacted stigma was associated with more IPV reporting across all types of violence: physical (coefficient: 1.539, p<.0005), sexual (coefficient: .999, p<.05), and psychological (coefficient: 1.203, p<.005). Results of testing the moderating role of violence type on the relationship between enacted stigma and IPV were non-significant for all types of violence. In conclusion, the more enacted stigma that was experienced, the more reporting occurred. In addition, type of violence did not moderate the relation between enacted stigma and reporting of intimate partner violence.

Publisher

East Tennessee State University

Document Type

Honors Thesis - Open Access

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Copyright

Copyright by the authors.

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