Áine Travers to lead large-scale LGBTQ+ intimate partner violence study

Existing research suggests that the level of intimate partner violence in the LGBTQ+ community equals or exceeds that of heterosexual or cisgender samples, but the reasons for this, and its impact on the community, are not well understood. 

“What I want to do is take a very large sample of 5,000 people from the UK and Ireland and track them over time,” said Dr Travers. “We don’t have any data sets like that at the moment, so this would be the first of its kind.” 

Dr Travers specialises in the study of intimate partner violence and was previously commissioned by the UK Home Office to review the evidence on intimate partner violence affecting bisexual people. 

She found that there was a serious lack of longitudinal data available, and that prompted her to submit a proposal for a longitudinal study capable of answering questions about the prevalence and experience of intimate partner violence in the LGBTQ+ community. 

The baseline sample will be taken in 2024, with another sample six months after that, and again each year, over four years. 

Services 

At the moment there is data to suggest that LGBTQ+ people are less likely to access support services that deal with intimate partner violence, with some reporting negative experiences with services. 

“It is important that services are sensitised to the needs of LGBTQ+ people,” said Dr Travers. “This could mean setting up new specialised supports, having mainstream services more tuned in to the needs of LGBTQ+ clients, or a combination of both approaches.” 

There are a number of stakeholders linked in with Dr Travers research, who would like to see the services that are available better adapted and suited to LGBTQ+ people’s needs. 

“It has taken a long time for this study to happen because LGBTQ+ identities are still stigmatised and a study like this tends to fall down the list of research priorities because of that,” said Dr Travers. 

“We have a broad range of stakeholders on board - LGBTQ+ community activists, academics and service providers and they are all unanimous that this work needs to be done.”

“This is expensive, challenging work to undertake that requires investment of significant resources to get right, and I’m hugely grateful to the Wellcome Trust for seeing the value in the work and choosing to invest in it. I really believe that this research has potential to make a difference in people’s lives.”