The Growing Concern of Cyber Dating Abuse Among Teens and How It Relates to Other Forms of Dating Violence and LGBTQ issues

Join the Walden Forum for a discussion with Meredith Dank - Senior Research Associate at the Urban Institute (UI), Washington D.C. This Walden Forum will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 10 at Wayland High School, 264 Old Connecticut Path, Wayland, MA.

Dank and Janine Zweig, a Senior Fellow at UI, conducted a National Institute of Justice-funded study entitled, “Technology, Teen Dating Violence and Abuse, and Bullying.”  The goal of the project was to expand knowledge about the types of violence and abuse experiences youth have via technology (e.g., social networking sites, texting on cell phones), and how the experience of such cyber abuse within teen dating relationships or through bullying relates to other life factors.

Dank and Zweig found that just over a quarter of youth in a current or recent relationship experienced cyber dating abuse victimization, with girls more likely to experience abuse than boys. Victims of sexually oriented cyber abuse are seven times more likely to experience sexual coercion. These and other findings from a survey of 5,647 youth in three northeastern states shed new light on how technology is used to perpetrate abuse and sexual violence among youth, as well as implications for prevention and intervention. Dank and Zweig also found that one in four dating teens is abused or harassed online or through texts by their partners, according to the largest survey to date on the subject. Social networking sites, texts, cell phones and e-mails haven’t pushed abuse rates up, but they have given abusers another way to control, degrade and frighten their partners, even when apart. Digital harassment also warns of a deeper pattern of abuse offline. Victims are two times as likely to be physically abused, two and a half times as likely to be psychologically abused and five times as likely to be sexually coerced.

With regards to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth (LGBT), LGB youth are at higher risk for all types of dating violence victimization (and nearly all types of dating violence perpetration), compared to heterosexual youth. More specifically, LGB youth are more likely to report being victimized by physical dating violence, psychological dating abuse, cyber dating abuse, and sexual coercion than heterosexual youth. The few transgender youth in the sample reported the highest rates of victimization with regard to all forms of dating violence compared to male or female youth.

The discussion will explore cyber abuse within teen dating violence. While more is known about youth’s use of technology in general and cyber bullying  among teens, less is known about the extent to which teens experience dating violence via technology (cyber dating abuse). We will discuss recent studies that highlight the myriad ways that youth can use technology to abuse their partners. Specifically, studies found eight ways in which partners used electronic communications, the last six of which were related to violence, abuse, or controlling behaviors: (1) establishing a relationship; (2) nonaggressive communication; (3) arguing; (4) monitoring the whereabouts of a partner or controlling their activities; (5) emotional aggression toward a partner; (6) seeking help during a violent episode; (7) distancing a partner’s access to self by not responding to calls, texts and other contacts via technology; and (8) reestablishing contact after a violent episode.

Meredith Dank, Ph.D.

Dank’s work focuses on international and domestic human trafficking, teen dating violence and vulnerable populations. She is the co-principal investigator on several international and domestic human trafficking projects, including a study on estimating the unlawful commercial sex economy in the U.S. and another on youths’ use of technology to perpetrate teen dating violence. She has conducted research on human trafficking in six countries, including a study on promising practices in three Tier One countries. She has also received Department of Justice funding to study how LGBTQ and Young Men who have Sex with Men youth are engaged in the commercial sex market and interact with the juvenile justice system, and a grant to study the organization, operation and victimization of labor trafficking in the United States. Dank is the author of The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (LFB Publishing, 2011).

About the Walden Forum – The Walden Forum is a free public series that brings people together to talk, listen and learn from one another in a civil environment. It fosters discussion about important ethical, religious, political, scientific, social and other topics in a live-forum setting. Dynamic speakers challenge and expand our views about the world around us and offer the opportunity for an open discussion of these issues in a convenient, local setting. Featuring world-class speakers on great topics throughout the year, the Walden Forum is a non-religious community program supported by First Parish in Wayland and others. For more information go to www.waldenforum.org or write to info@waldenforum.org.