Prevalence and Consequences of Technology-Facilitated Abuse Among College Students By Gender and Sexual Identity

Background and Purpose: Technology-facilitated abuse (TFA), defined as interpersonal violence perpetrated via electronic means, has escalated in recent years with disparities across sexual and gender identity. Existing research suggests that sexual minority college students experience significantly higher rates of TFA compared to their heterosexual counterparts, and transgender and gender diverse (TGD) emerging adults are at greatest risk for lifetime TFA polyvictimization relative to cisgender individuals. While past research found a connection between TFA and increased alcohol use for lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) college students, other TFA consequences for sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals remain unexplored. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence and consequences of TFA, including the degree to which TFA rates and outcomes differ across gender and sexual identity among college students.

Methods: The analytic sample for this study included 1,543 college students at one university in the South. Data were collected with a cross-sectional survey design, and participants were recruited via invitation emails. Participants were 23.60 years of age on average, and 58.5% identified as white. Approximately one-third of the sample identified as a sexual minority, of which the majority identified as bisexual (55.2%) followed by gay or lesbian (12.0%), questioning (9.7%), asexual (8.3%), queer (5.0%), or another identity (9.9%). The majority of the participants identified as cisgender women (66.4%) followed by cisgender men (27.8%) and TGD persons (5.9%). Data analysis consisted of t-tests, ANOVAs, and multiple linear regressions.

Results: Sexual minority persons had higher average TFA scores than heterosexual persons. Moreover, TFA exposure was associated with academic consequences (β = .476), depression (β = .516), anxiety (β = .528), and traumatic stress (β = .646) for all students. Sexual minority college students had a higher average number of academic consequences and worsened mental health outcomes as a consequence of TFA relative to heterosexual college students. Significant interactions between sexual identity and TFA exposure for depression (β = .119) and anxiety (β = .091) indicate that these TFA consequences are experienced worse by sexual minority individuals than heterosexual students. TGD individuals had higher average depression, anxiety, and traumatic stress than cisgender men. Mean comparisons also indicated higher levels of TFA-related depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress among TGD college students relative to cisgender college men.

Conclusions and Implications: Violence prevention programs should integrate TFA content related to its dynamics, prevalence, and consequences. Mental health providers and advocates could regularly assess for TFA among their clients using a trauma-informed approach. Future research should advance the current findings of disparities in TFA exposure and consequences by integrating elements of existing theories (e.g., minority stress theory, resilience, structural inequalities) to move beyond prevalence and associations toward identifying mechanisms that can be targeted for change. Future research should use longitudinal designs to test for causality, as well as an intersectional lens to respect the heterogeneity within SGM communities. Finally, it is important that research identify effective TFA prevention and intervention strategies, especially among SGM college students.