Cyber dating abuse in affective and sexual relationships: a literature review.

Roberta Matassoli Duran Flach, Suely Ferreira Deslandes

Cyber culture with its related e-commerce, expanded since the 2000s through the advent of social network platforms, incites participants to engage in hyper-exposure and spectacularization of their private lives, with inherent consequences for personal image and privacy, publicizing private matters (especially those pertaining to sexuality and corporality) in the digital media. This raises the need to understand how the phenomenon of cyber dating abuse in affective and sexual relationships is conceptualized and characterized in scientific studies, which health problems are associated with it, and which social technologies are suggested for intervention. This form of abuse is a new expression of intimate partner violence that involves, among other practices, posting embarrassing photos and videos and intimate messages without prior consent, with the purpose of humiliating and defaming the person. The current study is an integrative systematic review, including 35 articles, with a predominance of studies in the United States (22). Types of cyber dating abuse range from direct aggression to stalking. Despite the high prevalence, especially among adolescents and youth, the literature highlights that this type of cyber abuse is often taken for granted. The suggested interventions are mostly for prevention and awareness-raising concerning relationship abuse, action by school counselors, and family orientation. The high reciprocity of cyber dating abuse between males and females indicates that future studies should attempt to elucidate how the dynamics of gender violence are reproduced or subverted by it.