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“Technology was designed for this”: Adolescents’ perceptions of the role and impact of the use of technology in cyber dating violence

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.106211Get rights and content

Highlights

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    Adolescents perceive ICT to have both enabling and disenabling aspects for victims and instigators of CDV.

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    ICT is viewed as enabling instigators of CDV by facilitating CDV behaviours.

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    ICT is viewed as enabling victims of CDV to distance themselves from, report, respond to, and cope with indirect abuse.

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    ICT is viewed as disenabling victims of CDV due to its unique and potentially more harmful impact than offline abuse.

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    Implications are raised for educating adolescents about CDV and healthy responses to abusive experiences in relationships.

Abstract

This paper explores how adolescents perceive the role and impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) use in Cyber Dating Violence (CDV), and whether CDV results in unique experiences or impacts compared to that of offline Adolescent Dating Violence (ADV). Fifty-four adolescents (52% male) aged 13–16 (M = 13.8) participated in focus groups analysed using thematic analysis. Two superordinate themes identified the role of ICT in CDV as (1) enabling and (2) disenabling potential instigators and/or victims of CDV. The findings highlight implications for educating adolescents about the nature and impact of CDV and for promoting constructive and healthy responses to abuse in relationships.

Section snippets

Participants

Participants included 54 male and female adolescents (52% male, n = 28) aged 13–16 years old (M = 13.8; SD = 0.88) recruited via either a secondary school (n = 46) or youth club (n = 8) setting in Central England. The participants listed their ethnicity as follows: White 89%; Asian 2%; Black 2%; Chinese 0%; Mixed 6%; and Other 2%. Participants had previously completed a quantitative survey regarding their experience of CDV and ADV involvement as a victim and instigator and then expressed

Victim

The superordinate theme captured adolescents’ perceptions of how ICT may enable victims of CDV through providing opportunity for a response (whether this response is positive or negative) or promoting resilience and coping, thereby potentially reducing the impact of CDV relative to ADV that occurs in a face-to-face context only. Four subthemes were identified that encompassed ways in which the use of ICT in CDV may enable victims (Table 1).

Discussion

Little research has explored adolescents' perceptions towards the nature and impact of ICT use in CDV and how unique features of ICT may result in potentially unique experiences or consequences of CDV. The findings in this study offer a unique contribution to research through the identification of two superordinate themes that captured adolescents’ perceptions of ICT in terms of: (1) enabling and (2) disenabling instigators and/or victims of CDV, highlighting the role of several unique features

Acknowledgements

This research was conducted for a PhD thesis funded by a studentship in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences at Coventry University. I would like to thank my PhD supervisory team, Professor Erica Bowen and Dr Kate Walker (Coventry University) for their support with the research reported in this paper and for reading and providing critical feedback on the original thesis chapter.

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