(PS10-66) Exploring Relationship Investment as a Predictor of Reproductive Coercion Perpetration Among Transgender and Gender Diverse Individuals

Abstract Text: Reproductive coercion is a form of intimate partner violence (IPV) that includes actions like interfering with contraception use and pressuring for pregnancy (Grace & Anderson, 2018). It has been inadequately addressed compared to other forms of IPV (Munoz et al., 2023), especially its risk and protective factors. Research has identified relationship investment as a protective factor for psychological and physical IPV perpetration (Dardis et al., 2020); however, more research is needed to explore if relationship investment similarly is associated with reproductive coercion perpetration. Current literature also predominantly focuses on cisgender individuals while trans gender and gender diverse (TGD) individuals are at disproportionately high risk of IPV, ranging from 31-54% (Grace & Anderson, 2018, Kattari et al., 2022). Therefore, this study aimed to investigate if relationship investment was associated with reproductive coercion perpetration among TGD individuals. We hypothesized that higher relationship investment would be associated with lower occurrence of reproductive coercion.

137 TGD adults, aged 18-58 (age M= 29 SD= 8.59) participated in the study. Participants self-identified as TGD (67.9% non-binary, 55.5% transgender, 24.1% men, 14.6% women, 5.8% agender; participants could endorse multiple gender identities) and most identified as White (78.8%). However, 48 cases were excluded from the analysis due to missing or non-applicable values and the final dataset comprised 89 participants. Reproductive coercion perpetration was measured using a study specific scale adapted from prior research (Miller et al., 2010; McCauley et al., 2017) for TGD individuals. Relationship investment was assessed using the Investment Model Scale, comprising four subscales: Satisfaction, Investment Size, Commitment Level, and Quality of Alternatives (Rusbult et al., 1998). The analysis employed a logistic regression with reproductive coercion as the dependent variable and all four relationship investment subscales as independent variables.

Contrary to our hypothesis and previous findings, results indicated that none of the subscales were significantly associated with reproductive coercion perpetration. A potential explanation for these findings may be the motivations underlying reproductive coercion. Reproductive coercion, unlike other forms of IPV, is often motivated by reasons that do not concern the relationship between the victim and perpetrator. For instance, coerced pregnancy is commonly motivated by reasons including family formation and childbearing desires, legacy creation, religious beliefs and desire for a male child (Alexander et al., 2021, Pearson et al., 2023). Additionally, the evidence obtained for IPV’s association with relationship investment from Dardis et al.’s (2020) research predominately involved cisgender, heterosexual couples whereas as the current study was conducted with TGD individuals.

These findings suggest the need for more research on what factors set apart reproductive coercion from other forms of IPV within gender minorities to facilitate the development of reproductive coercion interventions for TGD individuals.