The Development and Preliminary Validation of a Measure of Victimization within the Friendships of Emerging Adults

Abstract

For emerging adults, high-quality friendships can be an important source of companionship and support. The most commonly studied negative interaction between friends is conflict, yet work with youth suggests more serious victimization also occurs in friendship. In the current study, we developed and obtained preliminary psychometric evidence for the Friendship Victimization Scale, a measure that assesses physical, sexual, relational, and verbal forms of victimization in the friendships of emerging adults, as well as coercive and controlling behaviors. Emerging adults ( N = 316, Mage = 21.27 years, SD = 1.47; 60.4% women, 37.0% men; 59.2% White) completed the Friendship Victimization Scale along with measures to examine construct validity. The majority of the sample reported experiencing at least one act of victimization by a friend, and men reported more victimization than did women. Results supported a 2-factor structure, with relational and verbal victimization loading on one factor and physical and sexual victimization and controlling behaviors loading on the other. Cronbach’s alphas exceeded .90 for the total score and both subscales. Greater friendship victimization was predicted by negative features in each of a best and a challenging friendship, even after accounting for negative features in a dating relationship, and was unrelated to positive features in any of these relationships. Overall, results indicate that victimization is common in emerging adults’ friendships. The findings provide preliminary evidence for the utility of the Friendship Victimization Scale as a measure of this understudied source of risk in the interpersonal lives of emerging adults.

Coercive control in a national U.S. self-report survey: Prediction of repeated intimate partner violence.

“…Coercive control in intimate relationships was correlated with similar behaviors toward nonintimates and with verbal abuse toward nonintimates, consistent with our predictions. One third of participants reported nonintimate coercive control, adding to research reporting the occurrence of behaviors characterized as coercive and controlling in friendships (Dryburgh et al, 2023) and suggesting that the concept of coercive control need not be limited to intimate relationships. Further, coercive control was significantly correlated with nonintimate physical violence overall.…”

“…However, coercive control is also reported among men and women in same- and different-sex relationships (e.g., Callan et al, 2021; Guadalupe-Diaz, 2019; Stark & Hester, 2019), giving rise to broader theoretical understandings that have drawn on the vulnerability of people with socially marginalized sexual orientation, race, age, and other identities (e.g., Stark, 2020). Furthermore, coercive and controlling behavior is noted in nonintimate relationships as well (e.g., Dryburgh et al, 2023), raising the question of whether coercive control is a distinctive characteristic of IPV. A controlling behavior pattern exhibited in different relationships may indicate a general tendency to dominate one’s interactions across interpersonal contexts, which may add critical nuance to the understanding of coercive control rooted in gender-based oppression and violence.…”

“…In friendships, for example, adolescents have reported tactics such as spreading gossip, telling people their friend is a liar, and threatening to post unflattering photos of their friend (e.g., Kirmayer et al, 2021). Dryburgh et al (2023) argued that adults may be threatened by the prospect of being replaced by a third party and “guard” their friendship using coercive, controlling behavior. In a factor analysis, acts of coercion and control of the friendship (e.g., “told me that I needed to spend more time with him/her,” “made me let them read my emails or texts when I didn’t want them to”) factored with physical and sexual aggression rather than verbal aggression, and this factor was positively correlated with victimization in dating relationships (Dryburgh et al, 2023).…”

“…Dryburgh et al (2023) argued that adults may be threatened by the prospect of being replaced by a third party and “guard” their friendship using coercive, controlling behavior. In a factor analysis, acts of coercion and control of the friendship (e.g., “told me that I needed to spend more time with him/her,” “made me let them read my emails or texts when I didn’t want them to”) factored with physical and sexual aggression rather than verbal aggression, and this factor was positively correlated with victimization in dating relationships (Dryburgh et al, 2023). This finding suggests that some individuals may exhibit a general pattern of behaviors used to establish dominance in relationships.…”