Debates on how sex, gender, and sexual identity relate to intimate partner violence (IPV) are longstanding. Yet the role that measurement plays in how we understand the distribution of IPV has been understudied. We investigated whether people respond differently to IPV items by sex and sexual identity and the implications this has for understanding differences in IPV burdens. Our sample was 2,412 randomly selected residents of Toronto, Canada, from the Neighborhood Effects on Health and Well-being (NEHW) study. IPV was measured using short forms of the Physical and Nonphysical Partner Abuse Scales (20 items). We evaluated the psychometric properties of this measure by sex and sexual identity. We examined whether experiences of IPV differed by sex and sexual identity (accounting for age and neighborhood clustering) and the impacts of accounting for latent structure and measurement variance. We identified differential item functioning by sex for six items, mostly related to nonphysical IPV (e.g., partner jealousy). Males had higher probabilities of reporting five of the six items compared to females with the same latent IPV scores. Being female and identifying as lesbian, gay, or bisexual were positively associated with experiencing IPV. However, the association between female sex and IPV was underestimated when response bias was not accounted for and outcomes were dichotomized as “any IPV.” Common practices of assuming measurement invariance and dichotomizing IPV can underestimate the association between sex or gender and IPV. Researchers should continue to attend to gender-based and intersectional differences in IPV but test for measurement invariance prior to comparing groups and analyze scale (as opposed to binary) measures to account for chronicity or intensity.

关于性、性别和性认同如何与亲密伴侣暴力 (IPV) 相关的争论由来已久。然而，测量在我们如何理解 IPV 分布方面所起的作用尚未得到充分研究。我们调查了人们对 IPV 项目的反应是否因性别和性身份而异，以及这对理解 IPV 负担差异的影响。我们的样本是从邻里健康和福祉 (NEHW) 研究中随机选择的 2,412 名加拿大多伦多居民。IPV 是使用简短形式的身体和非身体伴侣虐待量表（20 个项目）来衡量的。我们通过性别和性身份评估了这项措施的心理测量特性。我们检查了 IPV 的经历是否因性别和性身份（考虑年龄和邻里聚类）而不同，以及考虑潜在结构和测量方差的影响。我们确定了六个项目按性别分类的不同项目功能，主要与非身体 IPV（例如，伴侣嫉妒）有关。与具有相同潜在 IPV 分数的女性相比，男性报告 6 个项目中的 5 个的概率更高。身为女性并认定为女同性恋、男同性恋或双性恋与经历 IPV 呈正相关。然而，当不考虑反应偏差并且结果被二分为“任何 IPV”时，女性性别与 IPV 之间的关联被低估了。假设测量不变性和将 IPV 二分法的常见做法可能会低估性或社会性别与 IPV 之间的关联。