Digital Dating Abuse Perpetration in Adolescent Dating Relationships: Exploring Motivations for Digital Behaviors and Links to Off-Line Abuse

Background and Purpose: Dating abuse is a significant form of gender-based violence among adolescents. As the use of digital media increases among youth, so have concerns that these media might be a context for problematic dating behaviors. “Digital dating abuse” (DDA) is a repeated pattern of behaviors to pressure, threaten, coerce, or monitor a dating partner using digital media. Emerging evidence shows that although girls and boys both experience DDA, the impact and consequences of DDA victimization differs by gender. However, little is known about the gendered experience of DDA perpetration. The current study investigated: How often are girls and boys perpetrating DDA behaviors? Are DDA behaviors associated with off-line dating violence perpetration? Are there gender differences in girls’ and boys’ perpetration motivations?

Methods: A survey study of 947 high school students was conducted at a large Midwest high school (56% girls, 13-19 years old, 72.2% White, 7% Black, 6.7% Asian, 4.7% Middle Eastern, 1.7% Latino). The majority reported having dating experience (74.2%). Measures of digital media use, dating experience, and DDA motivations were developed for use in this study. DDA perpetration behaviors were measured using the 18-item scale from Reed, Tolman, & Ward (2017). Traditional physical, sexual, and psychological dating violence perpetration was measured with the Safe Dates measure by Foshee et al., (1998). For each reported DDA perpetration behavior in their most recent dating relationship, participants were asked to provide motivations for these behaviors. They could select as many motivations as they wished from a list of possible motivations (e.g., “it was a joke,” “Because I wanted to hurt their feelings”).

Results: DDA perpetration was common among participants with dating experience (N=703); 16.9% of girls and 34% of boys reported digital sexual coercion, 45% of girls and 37.1% of boys reported digital direct aggression, and 51.3% of girls and 40.7% of boys reported digital monitoring/control behaviors. Boys perpetrated significantly more DDA sexual coercion, t(679) = -5.21, p < .000 and girls perpetrated significantly more DDA monitoring/control, t(678) = 2.14, p = .033. DDA was strongly correlated with traditional dating violence perpetration for both girls and boys. The most common motivations reported were anger (23.5%), being upset (27.5%), and “it was a joke” (34.1%). Crosstab analyses showed that girls (45%) were significantly more likely than boys (32.6%) to report anger motivations, χ² (2, N = 416) = 6.84, p = .033. Girls were also more likely (56.3%) than boys (33.1%) to report being upset as a motivation, χ² (2, N = 416) = 22.26, p < .000.

Conclusions and Implications: Results suggest that while both girls and boys engage in DDA perpetration and off-line dating abuse, their tactics and motivations for these behaviors may differ. Girls appear to be more motivated than boys to perpetrate DDA due to emotional arousal. A significant portion of both girls and boys reported that DDA perpetration was meant to be “a joke.” These findings can inform healthy relationships education efforts by assisting in identifying the gendered motivations and interpretation of DDA behavio