Emotional Intimate Partner Violence Among Sexual Minority Men In the United States: A Scoping Review

Background

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a critical public health issue among sexual minority men (SMM), including gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men . While research on IPV in SMM has grown, most have focused on physical and sexual violence, with comparatively limited attention to emotional and psychological abuse. Emotional IPV, including behaviors such as manipulation, humiliation, threats, coercive control, and social isolation, can profoundly affect mental health and well-being, and intersects with identity-based forms of harm, including threats of outing, exploitation of internalized stigma, and control over social or digital spaces. A comprehensive synthesis of the literature is needed to describe the scope of evidence and identify gaps that can inform future research, practice, and policy. This scoping review synthesizes the empirical literature on emotional IPV among SMM in the U.S, focusing on prevalence, associated factors, health outcomes, and implications for intervention and services.

Methods

This scoping review followed the PRISMA-ScR guideline and included peer-reviewed quantitative studies examining emotional or psychological IPV among SMM in the U.S. Studies were included if they provided quantitative outcomes of IPV victimization or perpetration involving emotional or psychological abuse, included SMM as the primary population or reported subgroup outcomes, were conducted in the U.S. Data were extracted on study characteristics, sample demographics, IPV definitions and measures, prevalence estimates, associated psychosocial factors, and health outcomes. Findings were synthesized narratively to identify patterns and key themes.

Results

Fifty-one studies met inclusion criteria (50 quantitative, one mixed-methods), with sample sizes ranging from 41 to 3,745. Thirty-six studies used established instruments, but only 19 reported psychometric data. The most common tools were the Revised Conflict Tactics Scales (n=14) and the Intimate Partner Violence among Gay and Bisexual Men Scale. Emotional IPV victimization rates ranged from 6.2% to 86.0% (n=34) and perpetration rates from 0.6% to 84.0% (n=15). Associated factors spanned individual (e.g., substance use, internalized homophobia), relationship (e.g., power imbalances, relationship dependency, conflict patterns), community (e.g., discrimination, minority stress, lack of SMM-affirming social support), and societal levels (e.g., stigma, heteronormativity, limited legal protections for SMM). Emotional IPV was linked to adverse outcomes including substance use, HIV sexual risk behavior, mental health symptoms, and challenges with HIV disclosure.

Conclusions

This review highlights the substantial prevalence and public health significance of emotional IPV among SMM. The wide range in prevalence estimates reflects both true population variation and considerable heterogeneity in measurement approaches that limits cross-study comparability. Many instruments were not developed or validated for SMM, failing to capture identity-based abuse mechanisms such as outing threats, exploitation of internalized homophobia, and digital control; standardized, SMM-affirming instruments with established psychometric properties are urgently needed. The multilevel factors and adverse health outcomes identified further underscore that emotional IPV is embedded within broader minority stress processes and structural inequities, necessitating trauma-informed, culturally affirming services that address these intersecting vulnerabilities. Collective efforts across research, practice, and policy are essential to generate rigorous evidence and improve health outcomes for SMM experiencing emotional IPV.