Hurt people hurt people: Understanding actual and perceived aggressive behavior among sexually and gender diverse adolescents

Référence

Martin-Storey A, Pollitt A. (2025). Hurt people hurt people: Understanding actual and perceived aggressive behavior among sexually and gender diverse adolescents. Dans L Baams, T Kaufman (dir.), Sexually and gender diverse adolescents: Critical perspectives on risk and resilience. Routledge, Oxfordshire.

Résumé

Stigma and resulting rejection and discrimination associated with sexual and gender minority status (defined here as people whose sexual identity, attraction, and/or behavior, or gender identity does not align with cisgender, heterosexual norms) positions sexual and gender minority adolescents as being the victims of aggression. Research on the consequences of these experiences among sexual and gender minority adolescents has typically focused on internalizing problems (i.e., depressive and somatic symptoms), substance use problems, eating psychopathology, and general distress. And, while these mental health outcomes are well‑documented, research finds that reciprocal aggressive behavior is even more commonly documented among general populations in response to experiencing aggression. This outcome has not been strongly studied in sexual and gender minority populations. To better understand aggression perpetration among sexual and gender minority populations, we consider two different processes. First, from the perspective of “hurt people hurt people,” we examine how negative interpersonal experiences such as peer victimization and intimate partner violence both provoke proximate aggressive responses and compromise psychosocial functioning in ways that increase aggressive behavior in the long term. Second, then, we also discuss how sexual and gender minority adolescents may be perceived by others as more aggressive, which in turn would have consequences for their subsequent behavior. Focusing on insights from minority stress and developmental psychopathology literatures, we propose a model for understanding the links between sexual and gender minority status and both actual and perceived aggressive behavior and aggressive behavior disorders.