title: Snooping and Sexting: Digital Media as a Context for Dating Aggression and Abuse Among College Students.
abstract: Digital dating abuse (DDA) is a pattern of behaviors that control, pressure, or threaten a dating partner using a cell phone or the Internet. A survey of 365 college students was conducted, finding that digital monitoring behaviors were especially common. There were no gender differences in number of DDA behaviors experienced, but women reported more negative hypothetical reactions to sexual messaging than men. DDA was associated with measures of physical, sexual, and psychological dating violence. Results suggest that digital media are a context for potentially harmful dating behaviors, and the experience of DDA may differ by gender for sexual behaviors.
authors.affiliation: University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, USA lreed@education.ucsb.edu.
authors.forename: Lauren A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Reed
authors.affiliation: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA.
authors.forename: Richard M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Tolman
authors.affiliation: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA.
authors.forename: L Monique
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Ward
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology; D003146:Communications Media / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D000066511:Intimate Partner Violence / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D017406:Sexual Harassment / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012747:Sexual Partners / Q000523:psychology*; D060756:Social Networking; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014495:Universities / Q000458:organization & administration; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: cyber dating abuse; dating violence; new media