Prevalence and Correlates of the Perpetration of Cyber Dating Abuse among Early Adolescents

Abstract

Much is known about the prevalence and correlates of dating violence, especially the perpetration of physical dating violence, among older adolescents. However, relatively little is known about the prevalence and correlates of the perpetration of cyber dating abuse, particularly among early adolescents. In this study, using a predominantly ethnic-minority sample of sixth graders who reported ever having had a boyfriend/girlfriend (n = 424, 44.2 % female), almost 15 % reported perpetrating cyber dating abuse at least once during their lifetime. Furthermore, using a cross-sectional design, across multiple levels of the socio-ecological model, the individual-level factors of (a) norms for violence for boys against girls, (b) having a current boyfriend/girlfriend, and (c) participation in bullying perpetration were correlates of the perpetration of cyber dating abuse. Collectively, the findings suggest that dating violence interventions targeting these particular correlates in early adolescents are warranted. Future studies are needed to establish causation and to further investigate the relative importance of correlates of the perpetration of cyber dating abuse among early adolescents that have been reported among older adolescents.

Relations among Romantic Myths, Offline Dating Violence Victimization and Cyber Dating Violence Victimization in Adolescents

“…Cyber dating violence is a growing problem among adolescents [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. Their frequent use of the communication technologies in their romantic relationships increases the possibility of expressing affection to their partners and being linked to them [9,10].…”

“…It is estimated that between 12% and 56% of adolescents have experienced cyber dating violence victimization [16]. This form of dating violence (DV) is defined as the control, harassment, threats, stalking and abuse of current or former dating partners via technology and social media [4,5,[17][18][19]. Cyber DV includes both behaviors that involve harming victims through direct attacks, e.g., threats, insults or disseminating private information, namely cyber-aggression, and forms of abusive control of victims to monitor their social relationships and what they are doing at any time, namely cyber-control [1,11,18,20,21].…”

“…Cyber DV victimization is considered qualitatively different from victimization via offline dating violence because victims of such violence can be constantly attacked and feel unable to escape the situation [4,5,7,8,12]. Easy access to victims, lack of geographical boundaries and the rapid dissemination of victims' denigrating or humiliating information are characteristics of this type of violence that make victims feel increasingly helpless, which negatively impacts their well-being [4,[6][7][8]11,13,[24][25][26]. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) allow prejudicial information and images about victims to quickly spread to a very large audience, constant monitoring of their activity on social networks, and contact with them anytime and from anywhere [14,19,27].…”

Cyber and in-person intimate partner violence victimization: Examining maladaptive psychosocial and behavioral correlates

“…Although literature on general cyber aggression (Baum et al, 2009;Bocij, 2004;Ellison, 2001;Lydon et al, 2011) and C-IPV (Bennett et al, 2011;Marganski & Melander, 2018;Reed et al, 2016) is growing, the extant research does not provide much information on maladaptive behavioral outcomes or correlates that are associated with harmful online interactions. Researchers have conceptualized alcohol abuse, substance use, and antisocial behavior as predictors of cyber aggression perpetration and/or victimization in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies (Peskin et al, 2017;Temple et al, 2016;Van Ouytsel et al, 2016; however, few have examined the consequences of C-IPV among young adults.…”

“…Although a few researchers have examined C-IPV in college samples (e.g. Borrajo et al, 2015;Marganski & Melander, 2018), most research has been conducted with high school samples (Peskin et al, 2017;Temple et al, 2016;Van Ouytsel et al, 2016;Van Ouytsel et al, 2017). Given that a high percentage of university students date, C-IPV needs to be examined in university samples as well.…”