Victimization of Digital Controlling Behavior within Adolescents' Romantic Relationships from a Lifestyle-Routine Activities Theory Perspective

Introduction

Controlling one’s romantic partner through digital media is a form of cyber dating abuse. In order to design effective educational prevention campaigns, a deeper understanding of how some teenagers become victim of this type of abuse within their romantic relationships is warranted.  Lifestyle-routine activities theory could provide a framework that helps to identify factors that put adolescents at risk for victimization.

Methods
The final sample comprises of 466 secondary school students that indicated that they were in a romantic relationship  (71.0% girls, n=331) between 16 and 22 years old (M=17.99 years; SD=.92). The scale measuring victimization of digital controlling behaviors (Cronbach’s α=.76) consisted of four items that asked respondents to rate whether they had been a victim of controlling behaviors by their current romantic partner. Independent variables were the length of the romantic relationship, whether the respondents owned a smartphone, whether the respondents had a data plan for their smartphone, how often they used social networking sites, whether they engaged in online risk behavior, and whether they had engaged in sexting with their romantic partner.

Results

Standard multiple regression analysis was performed to assess which variables most strongly related to being controlled by a romantic partner through digital media. The total variance explained by the model was 14.6%. Engagement in online risk behavior (β=.28, p<.001) was the strongest predictor followed by the length of the relationship (β=.15, p< .01), engagement in sexting (β=.14, p<.01) and the amount of social networking site use (β=.01, p<.05). Smartphone ownership (β=.02, p=.705), the use of a mobile data plan (β=-.02, p=.663) and the control variables gender (β=-.04, p=.406) and age (β=.07, p=.406) were not significantly linked to being controlled by a romantic partner.

Discussion

The finding that victimization is linked with online risk behavior might be explained by the assumption that they are less aware of the importance of protecting their online profiles and digital devices which might create opportunities for perpetrators to access their personal information. Our study also found a link between the time that youth spend on social networking sites and becoming a victim of controlling behaviors. This is consistent with the lifestyle-routine activities theory as more time spent on these sites, creates more opportunities for perpetrators to contact their victims. The results suggest that safer internet use and practical skills on how to protect digital devices could be part of teenage dating violence prevention programs.