Men’s differential identification with female-perpetrated intimate partner victimization

ABSTRACT

Men are often reluctant to self-identify as victims of female-perpetrated intimate partner violence (f-IPV), despite significant harms. This reluctance results in underreporting of experiences and a concomitant lack of support and resources for male victims. We examined predictors of men’s differential self-identification as victims of f-IPV; that is, between men who self-identify both as having experienced and as being a victim of f-IPV (abuse and victim identified = AVI), men who self-identify as having experienced f-IPV, but not as being a victim of f-IPV (abuse-only identified = AI), and men who self-identify as neither having experienced nor being a victim of f-IPV, despite behaviourally having experienced it (non-abuse and non-victim identified = N-AVI). We recruited cisgender men (N = 212) to an online study examining experiences of f-IPV and identification with abuse. About two-thirds of our sample did not self-identify as victims of f-IPV despite reporting victimisation experiences. We found that frequency of f-IPV, psychological vulnerability from f-IPV, precarious manhood beliefs, and ambivalent sexism significantly predicted men’s self-identification as victims of f-IPV. We elucidate predictors of men’s reluctance to self-identify as victims of f-IPV, allowing for the identification of men who may be less likely to seek and obtain support.

KEYWORDS:

• Male victims
• female perpetrators
• masculinity
• sexism
• violence

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/19419899.2024.2340980.

Notes

1. See Supplemental Table S1 for summary of measures, acronyms, and their purpose.

2. See Supplemental Table S2 for types and duration of emotional reactions.

3. See Supplemental Table S2 for types of behavioural responses.

4. EM is suitable when data are missing completely at random (MCAR; Garson, 2019). This was assessed via Little’s MCAR test, which was nonsignificant, χ²(1082) = 1069.73, p = .599, and therefore suitable for EM replacement.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by a Student Research and Innovation Grant to the first author by the Kwantlen Polytechnic University Office of Research Services.