Cyber dating abuse in higher education students: self-esteem and relationship length
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
The rise in popularity, both of new technologies and of the Internet, has given opportunity to the emergence of new forms of violence. Cyber dating abuse represents a new form of dating violence, which has taken on worrying prevalences. Therefore, this study aims to characterize the prevalence of cyber dating abuse, to study the relationship between cyber dating abuse and self-esteem, and to investigate whether there are differences in cyber dating abuse depending on relationship length. 894 higher education students, aged between 17 and 56 years (M = 21.27, SD = 3.69), participated in the study. A Sociodemographic Questionnaire, the Portuguese version of Cyber Dating Abuse Questionnaire and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale were applied. The results indicated that more than 50% of the participants suffered and/or perpetrated cyber dating abuse, with a higher prevalence of cyber dating abuse by control. Self-esteem was significantly related to some factors of this type of violence, and it was verified that individuals who had never been victims of cyber dating abuse, as well as those who had never perpetrated it, had lower self-esteem. Finally, it was observed that the participants who had been in longer relationships practiced more acts of control. Thus, it seems pertinent to adopt awareness measures about this phenomenon.
Keywords:
Downloads
Article Details
References
Associação Portuguesa de Apoio à Vítima (2011). Manual crianças e jovens vítimas de violência: Compreender, intervir e prevenir. APAV.
Associação Portuguesa de Apoio à Vítima. (2020). Estatísticas APAV. Relatório anual 2020. Acedido a 24 de julho de 2021, em https://apav.pt/apav_v3/index.php/en/2698-estatisticas-apav-relatorio-anual-2020
Associação Portuguesa de Apoio à Vítima. (n.d.). Violência no namoro. Acedido a 22 de julho de 2021, em https://www.apavparajovens.pt/pt/go/o-que-e1
Borrajo, E., Gámez-Guadix, M., Pereda, N., & Calvete, E. (2015). The development and validation of the Cyber Dating Questionnaire among young couples. Computers in Human Behavior, 48, 358-365. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.01.063
Cantu, J. I., & Charak, R. (2020). Unique, additive, and interactive effects of types of intimate partner cybervictimization on depression in Hispanic emerging adults. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260520915552
Caridade, S. M., & Braga, T. (2019). Versão portuguesa do Cyber Dating Abuse Questionnaire (CDAQ) – Questionário sobre Ciberabuso no Namoro (CibAN): Adaptação e propriedades psicométricas. Análise Psicológica, 1, 93-105. https://doi.org/10.14417/ap.1543
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019). Risk and protective factors for perpetration. Acedido a 20 de julho de 2021, em https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/intimatepartnerviolence/riskprotectivefactors.html
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020). Preventing teen dating violence. Acedido a 22 de fevereiro de 2022, em https://www.cdc.gov/injury/features/dating-violence/index.html
Daspe, M. È., Vaillancourt-Morel, M. P., Lussier, Y., & Sabourin, S. (2018). Facebook use, facebook jealousy, and intimate partner violence perpetration. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 21, 549-555. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2018.0159
Douglas, H., Harris, B. A., & Dragiewicz, M. (2019). Technology-facilitated domestic and family violence: Women’s experiences. The British Journal of Criminology, 59, 551-570. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azy068
Ferreira, M., Abreu, A. L., & Neves, S. (2019). Guião para a prevenção da violência no namoro em contexto universitário. Secretaria de Estado para a Cidadania e Igualdade.
Flach, R. M. D., & Deslandes, S. F. (2017). Abuso digital nos relacionamentos afetivo-sexuais: Uma análise bibliográfica. Cadernos de Saúde Pública, 33, 1-19. https://www.scielo.br/j/csp/a/KxzjtF4CnnYDqkbpTXfWdnt/abstract/?lang=pt
Gámez-Guadix, M., Borrajo, E., & Calvete, E. (2018). Partner abuse, control and violence through internet and smartphones: Characteristics, evaluation and prevention. Papeles del Psicólogo/Psychologist Papers, 39(3), 218-227. https://doi.org/10.23923/pap.psicol2018.2874
Giordano, P. C., Soto, D. A., Manning, W. D., & Longmore, M. A. (2010). The characteristics of romantic relationships associated with teen dating violence. Social Science Research, 39, 863-874. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2010.03.009
Giráldez, N., & Sueiro, E. (2015). Mitos do amor romántico. Revista de Estudios e Investigación en Psicología y Educación, 5, 57-61. https://doi.org/10.17979/reipe.2015.0.05.190
Gracia-Leiva, M., Puente-Martínez, A., Ubillos-Landa, S., González-Castro, J. L., & Páez-Rovira, D. (2020). Off-and online heterosexual dating violence, perceived attachment to parents and peers and suicide risk in young women. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17, 1-20. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17093174
Hancock, K., Keast, H., & Ellis, W. (2017). The impact of cyber dating abuse on self-esteem: The mediating role of emotional distress. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 11, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.5817/CP2017-2-2
Hinduja, S., & Patchin, J. W. (2020). Digital dating abuse among a national sample of US youth. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260519897344
Lucero, J. L., Weisz, A. N., Smith-Darden, J., & Lucero, S. M. (2014). Exploring gender differences: Socially interactive technology use/abuse among dating teens. Affilia, 29, 478-491. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886109914522627
Mosley, M. A., & Lancaster, M. (2019). Affection and abuse: Technology use in adolescent romantic relationships. The American Journal of Family Therapy, 47, 52-66. https://doi.org/10.1080/01926187.2019.1586592
Organização Mundial da Saúde (2014). Relatório mundial sobre a prevenção da violência 2014. Organização Mundial da Saúde.
Reed, L. A., Tolman, R. M., & Ward, L. M. (2016). Snooping and sexting: Digital media as a context for dating aggression and abuse among college students. Violence Against Women, 22, 1556-1576. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801216630143
Rizzo, C. J., Joppa, M. C., Barker, D., Zlotnick, C., Warren, J., Saint-Eloi Cadely, H., & Brown, L. K. (2020). Individual and relationship characteristics of adolescent girls with histories of physical dating violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 35, 1389-1414. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260517696859
Rocha-Silva, T., Nogueira, C., & Rodrigues, L. (2021). Intimate abuse through technology: A systematic review of scientific constructs and behavioral dimensions. Computers in Human Behavior, 122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106861
Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton University Press.
Santos, P. J., & Maia, J. (2003). Análise factorial confirmatória e validação preliminar de uma versão portuguesa da escala de auto-estima de Rosenberg. Psicologia: Teoria, Investigação e Prática, 2, 253-268. https://repositorio-aberto.up.pt/handle/10216/16170?locale=pt
Smith, K., Cénat, J. M., Lapierre, A., Dion, J., Hébet, M., & Côte, K. (2018). Cyber dating violence: Prevalence and correlates among high school students from small urban areas in Quebec. Journal of Affective Disorders, 234, 220-223. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2018.02.043
Stonard, K. E., Bowen, E., Walker, K., & Price, S. A. (2017). “They’ll always find a way to get to you”: Technology use in adolescent romantic relationships and its role in dating violence and abuse. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 32, 2083-2117. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260515590787
Van Ouytsel, J. V., Ponnet, K., & Walrave, M. (2018). Cyber dating abuse victimization among secondary school students from a lifestyle-routine activities theory perspective. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 33, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260516629390
Wolford-Clevenger, C., Zapor, H., Brasfield, H., Febres, J., Elmquist, J., Brem, M., Shorey, R. C., & Stuart, G. L. (2016). An examination of the partner cyber abuse questionnaire in a college student sample. Psychology of Violence, 6, 156-162. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0039442