Cyberviolence in young couples and its predictors

Abstract

The aims of this research were to analyze the presence of cyberviolence in young couples, to explore the associations between cyberviolence, emotional dependence, empathy, and filioparental relationships, and to identify predictors of cyberviolence. For this purpose, a convenience sample consisting of 469 university students was selected. They completed the following measures: The Adolescent Social Network Partner Violence Scale, the Parental Bonding Instrument, the Dating Emotional Dependence in Youth and Adolescents, and the Basic Empathy Scale. 51.9% of the sample admitted to having suffered cyber-violence, and 56.6% admitted to having perpetrated it. Boys scored higher than girls on cyberviolence and cybervictimization. It was found that the higher the level of education, the lower level of cyberviolence and the higher the number of partners, the greater the possibility of suffering cyberviolence. The scarce empirical evidence about the factors related to cyberviolence points to the need of further research on individual and family variables.

Jealousy, sexism, and romantic love myths: the role of beliefs in online dating violence

“…In summary, jealousy, romantic love myths, and sexism are interrelated components that would constitute a belief system that would favor the emergence of negative emotions and legitimize violent manifestations ( Cava and Buelga, 2018 ), including those that are expressed virtually, even though the evidence confirming these relationships is robust, most available studies present restrictions to understanding the joint role of these variables and establishing their relative importance since they are restricted to a few variables (e.g., De Los Reyes et al, 2022 ). In addition to the methodological restrictions of the use of univariate models and the lack of multivariate approximations, and the one that is of most significant interest for the present study, most of the available studies have focused on manifestations of face-to-face violence, which limits the generalizability of the findings to the new dynamics of romantic relationships, which have a robust virtual component.…”