[HTML][HTML] Relations among romantic myths, offline dating violence victimization and cyber dating violence victimization in adolescents

MJ Cava, S Buelga, L Carrascosa…�- International Journal of�…, 2020 - mdpi.com
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2020mdpi.com
Cyber dating violence is an increasing problem with serious negative consequences for
adolescents. Further knowledge about related variables is necessary to develop preventive
strategies. The aim of this study was to analyze the correlations among cyber dating
violence victimization (cyber-control and cyber-aggression), offline dating violence
victimization (physical, verbal–emotional, and relational) and adolescents' beliefs in myths of
romantic love; and to examine possible differences in cyber-control victimization, cyber�…
Cyber dating violence is an increasing problem with serious negative consequences for adolescents. Further knowledge about related variables is necessary to develop preventive strategies. The aim of this study was to analyze the correlations among cyber dating violence victimization (cyber-control and cyber-aggression), offline dating violence victimization (physical, verbal–emotional, and relational) and adolescents’ beliefs in myths of romantic love; and to examine possible differences in cyber-control victimization, cyber-aggression victimization and offline dating violence victimization (relational, physical and verbal–emotional) according to adolescents’ levels of belief (low vs. high) in myths of romantic love. The role of offline dating violence victimization (physical, verbal–emotional and relational) and romantic myths as predictor variables of cyber-control and cyber-aggression victimization was also explored. All these analyses were carried out separately with boys and girls. Of an initial sample of 919 adolescents, those who have had a dating relationship in the past year (492 adolescents, M = 15.10, SD = 1.59) were included. The regression analyses revealed that offline dating violence victimization and romantic myths were significant predictors of cyber-control and cyber-aggression victimization for both boys and girls, but explained variance was higher for girls. Verbal–emotional offline dating violence victimization was the main predictor of cyber-control victimization, and physical and relational offline dating violence victimizations were the main predictors of cyber-aggression victimization. These results can be useful for developing more effective offline and cyber dating violence prevention programs.
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