Digital Disclosure of Intimate Partner Violence on Social Media: A Scoping Review

Background and Purpose:

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a public health crisis that impacts the mental, physical, and social functioning of the survivors. As social media has become an inextricable part of the lives of individuals, it presents itself as an alternative and accessible platform to disclose the abuse suffered by IPV survivors. Although various systematic reviews have been conducted on digital disclosure of sexual violence, less is known about IPV survivors’ digital disclosure. This study examines how IPV survivors utilize social media to disclose experiences of abuse.

Methods:

We utilized a scoping review method and were guided by the question: What research evidence exists regarding how IPV survivors use social media to disclose their experiences of abuse? The Arksey and O’Malley’s (2005) framework was used to examine existing literature. The inclusion criteria for included studies were (i) peer-reviewed publication or dissertation from 2000-2024; (ii) written in English; and (iii) to explore IPV experiences by survivors on social media platforms. A total of 8 studies were included in our scoping review.

Results:

The results of our study are compounded into four broad domains: nature of abuse reported, posting frequency, challenges of reporting abuse, and nature of feedback received. The first theme of the nature of abuse included the most common form of abuse experienced by survivors was that of physical abuse. The second theme of posting frequency showed that the disclosure of IPV on social media increased during the pandemic, and an analysis of frequency and linguistic features and sentiments of the words that survivors used to discuss their IPV experiences. The third theme of challenges of reporting abuse involved factors such as societal perceptions of an IPV victim, structural barriers such as police inaction, biases against male survivors, financial challenges, and threats to the survivors. The fourth theme of the nature of feedback received involved sub-themes of positive and negative feedback after disclosure of abuse. The findings of our study illustrate the various ways in which IPV survivors use social media for abuse disclosure, seeking support, and gaining information from others with similar experiences.

Conclusion and Implications:

This scoping review highlights the salience of social media, especially for survivors of IPV, for abuse disclosure and support-seeking purposes. The findings indicate the crucial need for research on the digital disclosure of abuse by IPV survivors post-COVID, assessment of digital disclosure when examining social support received by the survivors, and an increased focus on help-seeking through informal platforms such as WhatsApp. Furthermore, IPV agencies could consider creating moderated IPV online discussion boards to ensure the information received by the survivors is accurate and create more awareness about the use of social media, including the benefits of online help-seeking, and the potential dangers associated with online disclosure, such as location tracking and privacy risks of the survivors.