Article

“Influencers” – a study investigating the messages people receive about coercive control on social media

Authors:
  • Manchester Metropolitan University and University of Central Lancashire
To read the full-text of this research, you can request a copy directly from the authors.

Abstract

Purpose Coercive control (which is a form of intimate partner violence [IPV]) is a significant public health concern affecting millions of people throughout the world. Whilst exposure to IPV in childhood and adolescence has been shown to contribute to the intergenerational transmission of IPV, this alone does not explain IPV. A range of bio-psycho-social factors contribute to IPV which includes exposure to peer influence on social media platforms, whereby research has shown this online expression of views and opinions can change off-line behaviour. This has extended to not only purchasing products but also influencing attitudes in relation to illegal behaviour such as sexual harassment and sexual assault. The purpose of this study was to explore what young people are being exposed to online, through social media, surrounding coercive controlling behaviour. Design/methodology/approach According to Fazel et al. (2021), real-time social media data can provide important information about trends in public attitudes and attitudes towards events in the news. This study used data from Twitter to explore what adolescents are being exposed to online surrounding coercive and controlling behaviour. The data was subsequently analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Findings Three overarching themes were found in relation to coercive control: the Educator; Gaslighter; and the Comedian. Two of these were forms of secondary victimisation. Practical implications Social media provides a powerful platform through which people’s attitudes and behaviours may be influenced both positively and negatively in relation to socio-political issues (Lozano-Blasco et al. , 2022). The implications of the findings in this study are discussed with recommendations for how social media platforms could be supported to act prevent them from being used as a tool to facilitate the distribution of hate speech in relation to IPV and instead be used as a platform for psycho-education. Originality/value Previous research in this field has tended to focus on the impact of IPV and the prevalence rates of IPV in young people, but not on the different types of information young people may be exposed to surrounding relationships on social media platforms.

No full-text available

Request Full-text Paper PDF

To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.

... Social media influencers are individuals who amass a following on digital platforms, leveraging their perceived trustworthiness and expertise to influence their audience's decisions (Haase and Worthington, 2023;Zhang and Mac, 2023). They often start as regular users sharing experiences and recommendations, gradually gaining recognizability and the power to impact their followers' choices (Peter and Muth, 2023). ...
... (Zhang and Mac, 2023) 2 "Influencers" on social media regarding coercive control include the Educator, Gaslighter, and the Comedian, influencing attitudes and behaviors towards coercive controlling behavior among young people. (Haase and Worthington, 2023) 3 Influencers are individuals who sway others' opinions through their views and advice, impacting purchasing decisions. They predominantly use platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest for promotions. ...
Article
Full-text available
This systematic literature review (SLR) delves into the realm of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered virtual influencers (VIs) in social media, examining trust factors, engagement strategies, VI efficacy compared to human influencers, ethical considerations, and future trends. Analyzing 60 academic articles from 2012 to 2024, drawn from reputable databases, the study applies specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. Both automated and manual searches ensure a comprehensive review. Findings reveal a surge in VI research post-2012, primarily in journals, with quantitative methods prevailing. Geographically, research focuses on Europe, Asia Pacific, and North America, indicating gaps in representation from other regions. Key themes highlight trust and engagement's critical role in VI marketing, navigating the balance between consistency and authenticity. Challenges persist regarding artificiality and accountability, managed through brand alignment and transparent communication. VIs offers advantages, including control and cost efficiencies, yet grapple with authenticity issues, addressed through human-like features. Ethically, VI emergence demands stringent guidelines and industry cooperation to safeguard consumer well-being. Looking ahead, VIs promises transformative storytelling, necessitating vigilance in ethical considerations. This study advocates for continued scholarly inquiry and industry reflection to navigate VI marketing evolution responsibly, shaping the future influencer marketing landscape.
... Otro tema que suscita numerosos mensajes de este tipo es el activismo (Castillo-Esparcia et al. 2023;Barroso et al., 2023), donde se produce un discurso de odio asociado con diversas causas que defienden las personas mediante las redes sociales, que no siempre son protegidas por las normas comunitarias de dichas plataformas. Finalmente, también se observa discurso de odio en la vida privada (Martínez y Mayagoitia, 2021;Haase y Worthington, 2023), a partir de ataques de este tipo a adolescentes, a mujeres, a estudiantes, que pueden provocar diversas consecuencias emocionales, académicas, laborales, etc. ...
Article
Full-text available
Las redes sociales virtuales han generado un gran impacto en la vida de las personas desde que surgen en el siglo XXI. Una de las más destacadas en Chile y en el mundo es Instagram, que se basa en la publicación de fotos y videos. Dentro de esta aplicación se ha logrado que muchas personas obtengan fama y puedan generar diferentes efectos entre sus seguidores, que son conocidas como influencers. Sin embargo, entre más seguidores se obtienen, más casos de discurso de odio se observan, especialmente en influencers femeninas. Este discurso es creado, en su mayoría, por usuarios masculinos, quienes logran generar incomodidad o provocar, incluso, que la usuaria limite la sección de comentarios para prevenir que esto siga en aumento. En relación con lo anterior, el objetivo de este trabajo es describir el discurso de odio presente en los comentarios de usuarios masculinos en los contenidos de las influencers chilenas. Para ello, se seleccionaron mujeres chilenas de diversas profesiones u oficios, para luego analizar un conjunto de posteos. Finalmente, se diseñó un instrumento de análisis en base a diferentes conceptos relacionados al discurso de odio, como acoso, denigración, ofensa, obscenidad y piropo. Dentro de los resultados destacados, se observa que los tipos de discursos más presentes fueron la denigración, dirigida hacia las capacidades intelectuales o físicas de las mujeres, y la obscenidad acompañada de emojis y textos vulgares, principalmente asociada a sus cuerpos. Cabe destacar que se observan diferencias entre el rol que cumple la mujer en la sociedad, ya sea una modelo o una política.
... In their study, they focus on the UK motor market and explore the opinion formers and opinion leaders in the market, the utilization of press releases and events, the degree of objectivity of the messages and opinions conveyed through this influencing process as well as the measurement and evaluation methods regarding the effectiveness of PR activities. Social media is proven to be a very "powerful platform through which people's attitudes and behaviours may be influenced both positively and negatively in relation to socio-political issues" (Haase & Worthington, 2023) and the consumption of influencers' social media and content/opinion can provide "the same cultivation impact as consuming news on any offline platform, particularly during times of threat" (Omar & Casero-Ripollés, 2023). ...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The terms influencer and influencer marketing are relatively new. However, they have raised research issues and gained a lot of attention in various research areas, ranging from social psychology, information and communication technology to marketing. Nevertheless, the impact of influencers on the adoption of new products and services, brand awareness and brand recognition is undeniable. Despite the impressive growth and popularity of influencers and influencer marketing in general, there is a lack of academic and practitioner research on the impact influencers have on the formation of public opinion. This study attempts to provide better insight and understanding of this subject as well as to represent a stepping stone for future research in this area. The theoretical starting points of this paper accentuate the knowledge based on influencers and influencer marketing, the formation of public opinion and the role of media in the formation of public opinion. The main objective of this paper is to determine the impact of influencers and influencer marketing on the formation of public opinion on everyday topics among a sample of 142 students from University North in Croatia from May to July 2022. The paper examines the differences in students' perception of influencers and influencer marketing on the formation of public opinion with regard to gender, age, level of study and type of study. The obtained results indicate that there is a statistically significant difference in the surveyed students about the influence of influencers and influencer marketing on the formation of public opinion according to the level and type of study and provide new insights for marketing and media practitioners.
Article
Full-text available
Epidemic Models of the Onset of Social Activities (EMOSA models) describe the spread of adolescent transition behaviors (e.g., sexuality, smoking, and drinking) through an interacting adolescent network. A theory of social contagion is defined to explain how social influence affects sexual development. Contacts within a network can, with some transition rate or probability, result in an increase in level of sexual experience. Five stages of sexual development are posited. One submodel proposes a systematic progression through these stages; a competing submodel treats each as an independent process. These models are represented in sets of dynamically interacting recursive equations, which are fit to empirical prevalence data to estimate parameters. Model adjustments are substantively interpretable and can be used to test for and better understand social interaction processes that affect adolescent sexual behavior.
Article
Full-text available
The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic remains a significant global public health crisis. The unique evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic has seen social media emerging and growing into an important vehicle for rapid information dissemination. This has in turn given rise to multiple sources of information, leading to what has come to be known as ‘infodemic’, associated with the plethora of misinformation and conspiracy theories. In this perspective, we explore the growth of the social media industry and the impact it has had during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. We argue that while the multiple information pieces circulating on social media cause misinformation and panic, this might not necessarily and in all the cases influence sustained behaviours in the target population groups. We offer suggestions on how the power of social media can be harnessed and integrated into social and public health for a better digital balance for communication for development.
Article
Full-text available
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant public health problem that adversely affects the well-being of victims. IPV is often under-reported and non-physical forms of violence may not be recognized as IPV, even by victims. With the increasing popularity of social media and due to the anonymity provided by some of these platforms, people feel comfortable sharing descriptions of their relationship problems in social media. The content generated in these platforms can be useful in identifying IPV and characterizing the prevalence, causes, consequences, and correlates of IPV in broad populations. However, these descriptions are in the form of free text and no corpus of labeled data is available to perform large-scale computational and statistical analyses. Here, we use data from established questionnaires that are used to collect self-report data on IPV to train machine learning models to predict IPV from free text. Using Universal Sentence Encoder (USE) along with multiple machine learning algorithms (random forest, SVM, logistic regression, Naïve Bayes), we develop DetectIPV, a tool for detecting IPV in free text. Using DetectIPV, we comprehensively characterize the predictability of different types of violence (physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse) from free text. Our results show that a general model that is trained using examples of all violence types can identify IPV from free text with area under the ROC curve (AUROC) 89%. We also train type-specific models and observe that physical abuse can be identified with greatest accuracy (AUROC 98%), while sexual abuse can be identified with high precision but relatively low recall. While our results indicate that the prediction of emotional abuse is the most challenging, DetectIPV can identify emotional abuse with AUROC above 80%. These results establish DetectIPV as a tool that can be used to reliably detect IPV in the context of various applications, ranging from flagging social media posts to detecting IPV in large text corpuses for research purposes. DetectIPV is available as a web service at https://www.ipvlab.case.edu/ipvdetect/.
Article
Full-text available
Attitudes to COVID-19 vaccination vary considerably within and between countries. Although the contribution of socio-demographic factors to these attitudes has been studied, the role of social media and how it interacts with news about vaccine development and efficacy is uncertain. We examined around 2 million tweets from 522,893 persons in the UK from November 2020 to January 2021 to evaluate links between Twitter content about vaccines and major scientific news announcements about vaccines. The proportion of tweets with negative vaccine content varied, with reductions of 20–24% on the same day as major news announcement. However, the proportion of negative tweets reverted back to an average of around 40% within a few days. Engagement rates were higher for negative tweets. Public health messaging could consider the dynamics of Twitter-related traffic and the potential contribution of more targeted social media campaigns to address vaccine hesitancy.
Article
Full-text available
This article explores the theoretical and practical role(s) of humour in facilitating outreach about sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in Sierra Leone. While humour might be considered an insensitive way of approaching difficult issues, this project shows that incongruity can in fact be productive. Recognizing that humour itself can be a form of symbolic or physical violence in some contexts, we argue that humour is a means of opening up conversations about violence (in this case SGBV) in order to address the social and legal challenges associated with it. Our pilot project – devised by an interdisciplinary team and conducted in partnership with a Sierra Leonean access-to-justice NGO, Timap for Justice – used comedy and performance to meet two key challenges: to disseminate awareness about social and legal issues related to commonplace practices of SGBV, and to open up a broader discussion about experiences of SGBV. Using empirical evidence from focus groups and interviews, this article shows how a humorous approach proved to be a productive mode of engagement and examines key concepts including ‘the vicinity of laughter’ (involving the spatial and interpersonal aspects of humour), the connections between laughter and memory, and the paradoxical relationship between lived experience, humour and violence.
Article
Full-text available
Although prior research has established that intimate partner violence (IPV) often leads to increased depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), little is known about how often abusive partners and ex-partners use survivors’ children as an abuse tactic, nor whether this form of IPV also is detrimental to survivors’ mental health. The current study interviewed 299 unstably housed survivors of intimate partner violence shortly after they sought services from a domestic violence agency. All participants were parents of minor children. In-person interviews asked about abuse experienced in the prior six months, including the ways children were used as a form of IPV. Participants were also asked about their current depression, anxiety, and symptoms of PTSD. As hypothesized, the majority of parents reported their abusive partners and ex-partners had used their children as a form of IPV to control and hurt them. Further, after controlling for other forms of IPV, use of the children significantly predicted both increased anxiety and greater number of PTSD symptoms. Results show the importance of focusing on the use of children as a common and injurious form of abuse used against survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV).
Article
Full-text available
The popularity and commercial success of electronic media that pair humor with violence suggests that many people enjoy laughing at screen media violence. But who is most likely to find media violence funny? To answer this question, we measured media violence exposure, dark personality traits, and the extent to which participants found media violence humorous in 2 cross-sectional survey studies with samples of undergraduate students (Study 1 N = 215; Study 2 N = 178). Across the 2 studies, we assessed moral disengagement, the dark triad, spitefulness, sadism, and proneness to schadenfreude as dark personality traits. Among other findings, men with high exposure to media violence, those who score high on sadism, and those who are prone to moral disengagement and schadenfreude were the most likely to find media violence funny. These were the most consistent associations; they were of small-to-moderate size. Thus, those who laugh the hardest at media violence may have the darkest personalities.
Article
Full-text available
Since the publication of their inaugural paper on the topic in 2006, Braun and Clarke’s approach has arguably become one of the most thoroughly delineated methods of conducting thematic analysis (TA). However, confusion persists as to how to implement this specific approach to TA appropriately. The authors themselves have identified that many researchers who purport to adhere to this approach—and who reference their work as such—fail to adhere fully to the principles of ‘reflexive thematic analysis’ (RTA). Over the course of numerous publications, Braun and Clarke have elaborated significantly upon the constitution of RTA and attempted to clarify numerous misconceptions that they have found in the literature. This paper will offer a worked example of Braun and Clarke’s contemporary approach to reflexive thematic analysis with the aim of helping to dispel some of the confusion regarding the position of RTA among the numerous existing typologies of TA. While the data used in the worked example has been garnered from health and wellbeing education research and was examined to ascertain educators’ attitudes regarding such, the example offered of how to implement the RTA would be easily transferable to many other contexts and research topics.
Article
Full-text available
Intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) is an epidemic social and public health problem. Research has consistently found evidence for a complex etiology of IPVAW resulting from the interaction of many factors, among which gender-related norms and attitudes are among the main drivers of this violence. Public attitudes toward IPVAW are especially important because attitudes rejecting, condoning, or fostering such behavior are social factors that contribute to a climate of tolerance or refusal that can shape the social environment in which such violence takes place. Given the importance of these attitudes, the availability of reliable, valid, and concise measures is critical for both research and intervention purposes. The evidence shows a probable bias of direct or explicit assessment measures of IPVAW attitudes, and it has been suggested that they should be complemented by indirect or implicit measures. In this context, the main aim of this paper was to examine how implicit and explicit attitudes toward IPVAW differ among a Spanish population. An opportunity sample of 693 students took part in this study. Two direct or explicit measures (the Inventory of Distorted Thoughts about Women and Violence, IPDMV, and the Inventory of Beliefs about Intimate Partner Violence, IBIPV) and one indirect or implicit measure [the Gender Violence Implicit Association Test (GV-IAT), a personalized form of the Implicit Association Test (IAT)] were applied. The results obtained show that the psychometric characteristics of the implicit measure used (GV-IAT) are acceptable. Additionally, we obtained significant differences by gender, IPVAW knowledge, IPVAW involvement, and political opinion when we measured IPVAW attitudes by implicit measures. However, when we measured these attitudes by explicit measures, we only obtained significant differences by gender and political opinion. Finally, the results highlight the important differences between the levels of strong IPVAW rejection measured with explicit and implicit measures, confirming the traditional discrepancy between explicit and implicit measures of attitudes. In summary, the results obtained provide additional support for the idea that GV-IAT constitutes a promising assessment tool to complement explicit measures for attitudes toward IPVAW.
Article
Full-text available
Intimate partner violence (IPV) and intergenerational transmission of IPV in families are destructive social issues in need of considerable attention. Knowledge of the multi-level, complex causes, and consequences of IPV in the United States has increased significantly over the last two decades. Given these gains in learning, the authors’ aim here is to highlight recent critical and emerging theoretical perspectives on IPV. Frameworks included for application are intersectionality theory, historical trauma and decolonization, human rights, constructivist self-development theory, the posttraumatic growth paradigm, and adverse childhood experiences. This discussion will help to illuminate the dynamics of IPV that are actionable by practitioners using frameworks that promote cultural sensitivity, inclusion, and strengths-based practice with diverse populations. The authors discuss the scope of IPV while focusing on critical vulnerable people and exploring issues of relative privilege and oppression. Next, the authors review the historical body of theory informing understandings of IPV, and emerging theoretical frameworks on IPV. We offer conclusions throughout as they relate to the application of highlighted theories to IPV.
Article
Full-text available
Introduction The current study examined motivations for social networking site use across three years during the transition from late adolescence to emerging adulthood. While research has been conducted examining reasons for social networking site usage and behavior, the clear majority have focused on samples of undergraduate college students and are cross‐sectional. Methods Changes in motivations for using social networking sites were examined in relation to problematic social networking site use and several behavioral and mental health outcomes in a sample of adolescents over three years. Results Using social networking sites to connect with others was relatively stable over a three‐year period. However, using social networking sites to seek information increased from late adolescence to emerging adulthood and was not related to any negative outcomes across three years. Using social networking sites to alleviate boredom also increased over time. Initial levels of social media use to alleviate boredom were associated with problematic social networking site use, financial stress, anxiety, and empathy at year three. Increases in using social networking sites to socially connect over time was related to problematic social networking site use, anxiety, delinquency, and empathy at year three. Using social networking sites for any reason was not related to depressive symptoms over three years. Conclusions The current study supports the growing body of literature suggesting that using social networking sites to alleviate boredom and socially connect, may place individuals at increased risk for developing pathological tendencies and patterns of behavior towards social networking sites.
Article
Full-text available
Aim: Negative body image increases the risk of engaging in unhealthy dieting and disordered eating patterns. This review evaluated the impact of habitual social media engagement or exposure to image-related content on body image and food choices in healthy young adults (18-30 years). Methods: A systematic search of six databases of observational literature published 2005-2019, was conducted (PROSPERO Registration No. CRD42016036588). Inclusion criteria were: studies reporting social media engagement (posting, liking, commenting) or exposure to image-related content in healthy young adults. Outcomes were: body image (satisfaction or dissatisfaction) and food choices (healthy eating, dieting/restricting, overeating/binging). Two authors independently screened, coded and evaluated studies for methodological quality. Results: Thirty studies were identified (n = 11 125 participants). Quantitative analysis (n = 26) identified social media engagement or exposure to image-related content was associated with higher body dissatisfaction, dieting/restricting food, overeating, and choosing healthy foods. Qualitative analysis (n = 4) identified five themes: (i) social media encourages comparison between users, (ii) comparisons heighten feelings about the body, (iii) young adults modify their appearance to portray a perceived ideal image, (iv) young adults are aware of social media's impact on body image and food choices, however, (v) external validation via social media is pursued. Most studies (n = 17) controlled for some confounding variables (age, gender, BMI, ethnicity). Conclusions: Social media engagement or exposure to image-related content may negatively impact body image and food choice in some healthy young adults. Health professionals designing social media campaigns for young adults should consider image-related content, to not heighten body dissatisfaction.
Article
Full-text available
Whistleblowers risk great personal cost to expose injustice. While their actions are sometimes deemed morally courageous, existing evidence that whistleblowers are primarily motivated by moral concerns is mixed. Moreover, little is known about the extent to which moral concerns predict whistleblowing relative to other organizational and situational factors. To address these gaps, we present two studies demonstrating the power of moral concerns in predicting whistleblowing decisions. Study 1 uses a large cross-sectional dataset of federal employees (N = 42,020) to test how moral concerns predict real-world whistleblowing decisions relative to other factors. Study 2 provides a more controlled replication of the association between moral concerns and whistleblowing decisions in an online sample of the U.S. workforce. Results revealed that moral concerns consistently predicted whistleblowing decisions above and beyond other organizational and situational factors. Specifically, whistleblowing decisions were associated with a tradeoff between moral concerns; whereby, concerns for the fair treatment of others beyond one's organization were associated with reporting unethical behavior, while loyalty to one's organization was associated with not reporting unethical behavior. Organizational factors, such as whether the organization educates its employees about how to disclose wrongdoing, showed a somewhat weaker association with whistleblowing decisions across studies. However, they were the only significant predictors of how people blew the whistle; that is, reporting unethical behavior through internal versus external channels. Together, these findings reveal important psychological motivations underlying whistleblowing, highlighting the power of moral concerns in these decisions and supporting conceptualizations of whistleblowing as an important example of moral courage.
Article
Full-text available
Media discourse has a profound effect on public opinions. Prior research, the majority of which has been conducted internationally, shows that print media constructions of intimate partner violence (IPV) operate within a patriarchal framework which normalizes and constructs men’s violence against women as acceptable. This research explored Queensland’s print media representation of IPV. Results show that the reporting of IPV is episodic, sensationalistic, prone to perpetrator sympathizing, and fails to contextualize IPV as an ongoing pattern of intentionally abusive behaviour.
Article
Full-text available
Recent literature on epistemic innocence develops the idea that a defective cognitive process may nevertheless merit special consideration insofar as it confers an epistemic benefit that would not otherwise be available. For example, confabulation may be epistemically innocent when it makes a subject more likely to form future true beliefs or helps her maintain a coherent self-concept. I consider the role of confabulation in typical cases of interpersonal gaslighting, and argue that confabulation will not be epistemically innocent in such cases even if it does preserve a coherent self-concept or belief-set for the subject. Analyzing the role of confabulation in gaslighting illustrates its role in on-going interpersonal relationships, and augments already growing evidence that confabulation may be quite widespread. The role of confabulation in gaslighting shows that whether confabulation confers epistemic benefits (and so is epistemically innocent) will depend greatly on the interpersonal context in which it is deployed, while whether a coherent self-concept is epistemically beneficial will depend to a great extent on the content of that self-concept. This shows that the notion of an epistemically harmful or beneficial feature of a cognitive process can and should be further clarified, and that doing so has both theoretical and practical advantages in understanding epistemic innocence itself.
Article
Full-text available
Intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) is the most common form of violence suffered by women and constitutes a serious public health problem of global proportions. Public attitudes towards IPVAW are key to understanding the social context in which this type of violence occurs. Victim-blaming attitudes are among those that reflect public tolerance and acceptability of IPVAW and are often used to explain or justify IPVAW. In this study we develop and validate a new instrument to assess victim-blaming attitudes in cases of IPVAW. A sample of 1,800 participants was recruited through social media and a second sample of 50 IPVAW offenders was used for validation purposes. Through a cross-validation approach and by fitting an item response theory model to the data, we found that the latent structure of the instrument was one-dimensional and particularly informative for medium and high levels of victim-blaming attitudes. Differential item functioning analysis showed that item parameters did not differ by gender. We found, in addition, that (a) our measure was strongly related to acceptability and perceived severity of IPVAW, and also to ambivalent sexism, (b) men presented higher levels of victim-blaming attitudes than women, and (c) IPVAW offenders showed higher levels of victim blaming-attitudes than men from the general population. A five-item short version of the scale is also presented for use in studies with limited application time or space. Our findings confirm that this new scale is a reliable and valid measure to assess victim-blaming attitudes in cases of IPVAW.
Article
Full-text available
This article draws on material gathered from Swedish tweets about the Roma population, in order to map different discourses. Based on this material, a legal analysis was made focusing on how the legal protection under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and Swedish law for such types of expression may vary depending on the wider discursive context. This article concludes that the legal protection for hateful expressions against for instance Roma, will vary depending on the discursive context. When the expression is a direct part of a political discussion, the protection of freedom of expression will be higher. However, emphasis must also be placed on the aim, value, and accuracy of the statement, even in a political context. This will increase the possibilities to legally intervene against speech that may perhaps be triggered by an ongoing political debate, but is hateful and without value to that debate.
Article
Full-text available
The present study introduces eight comic styles (i.e., fun, humor, nonsense, wit, irony, satire, sarcasm, and cynicism) and examines the validity of a set of 48 marker items for their assessment, the Comic Style Markers (CSM). These styles were originally developed to describe literary work and are used here to describe individual differences. Study 1 examines whether the eight styles can be distinguished empirically, in self- and other-reports, and in two languages. In different samples of altogether more than 1500 adult participants, the CSM was developed and evaluated with respect to internal consistency, homogeneity, test–retest reliability, factorial validity, and construct and criterion validity. Internal consistency was sufficiently high, and the median test-retest reliability over a period of 1–2 weeks was 0.86 (N = 148). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses showed that the eight styles could be distinguished in both English- (N = 303) and German-speaking samples (N = 1018 and 368). Comparing self- and other-reports (N = 210) supported both convergent and discriminant validity. The intercorrelations among the eight scales ranged from close to zero (between humor and sarcasm/cynicism) to large and positive (between sarcasm and cynicism). Consequently, second-order factor analyses revealed either two bipolar factors (based on ipsative data) or three unipolar factors (based on normative data). Study 2 related the CSM to instruments measuring personality (N = 999), intelligence (N = 214), and character strengths (N = 252), showing that (a) wit was the only style correlated with (verbal) intelligence, (b) fun was related to indicators of vitality and extraversion, (c) humor was related to character strengths of the heart, and (d) comic styles related to mock/ridicule (i.e., sarcasm, cynicism, but also irony) correlated negatively with character strengths of the virtues temperance, transcendence, and humanity. By contrast, satire had a moral goodness that was lacking in sarcasm and cynicism. Most importantly, the two studies revealed that humor might be related to a variety of character strengths depending on the comic style utilized, and that more styles may be distinguished than has been done in the past. The CSM is recommended for future explorations and refinements of comic styles.
Article
Full-text available
Intimate partner violence (IPV) has been linked to a broad range of negative consequences. Thus, early detection and prevention of behaviors associated with IPV is necessary to combat this global public health problem. Controlling behaviors (CBs) within the intimate context, including acts to constrain free mobility or access to friends and relatives, have been characterized as a moderate form of violence and may be an indicator of more severe IPV. Previous research in this field, however, has been primarily conducted in the United States. Accordingly, we lack knowledge of similar findings in other countries to draw more general conclusions about observed associations between these variables, and to identify underlying mechanisms. The current study analyzes the role of control within the Spanish context by examining its correlates, as well as the role and impact of CBs on psychological and physical violence. To achieve these objectives, we use data from the Spanish sample of the Violence Against Women Survey carried out by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (N = 1,520 adult women). The results indicated that young women, women with a previous history of physical/sexual abuse during childhood, and women who have resided in Spain for fewer years are at greater risk of experiencing control within the context of an ongoing relationship. Partner risk factors included frequent episodes of drunkenness and general violence (i.e., violence outside of the home). In addition, control was more frequently reported among couples where the man was older than the woman. As hypothesized, women who reported CB by their partners were more likely to experience psychological and physical violence. These findings emphasize the importance of preventing CBs to avert the most severe forms of violence, and provides relevant information about the groups that could most benefit from these efforts.
Article
Full-text available
Objective: The goals of the present review were to determine the prevalence of physical and sexual TDV among adolescents, obtain the rates of teen dating violence (TDV) separately by gender, and examine the potential moderation effects of age, demographics, and measurement. Method: A systematic literature search elicited 101 studies reporting rates for youth aged 13 to 18. Results: Meta-analytic combination produced an overall prevalence of 20% for physical TDV and 9% for sexual TDV. Significant variability in rates was found, with physical TDV ranging from 1% to 61% and sexual TDV ranging from <1% to 54%. Gender differences in physical TDV were significant for perpetration (boys 13% vs. girls 25%) but not for victimization (21% boys and girls). A different pattern was observed for sexual TDV with girls reporting lower rates of perpetration compared with boys (3% vs. 10%) and higher rates of victimization (14% vs. 8%). Moderator analyses revealed higher rates in samples representing higher proportions of older teens (sexual TDV), cultural minority girls (physical TDV), and disadvantaged neighborhoods (physical TDV). Studies using broad measurement tools yielded higher rates of both forms of TDV across gender. Conclusions: Basing the meta-analysis on a large pool of studies with comparable samples, 1 in 5 adolescents reported physical TDV and roughly 1 in 10 reported sexual TDV. Systematic bias in boys' and girls' self-reports was evident along with high variability in TDV rates across studies and significant moderator influences. These findings are suggestive of substantive methodological challenges in extant studies. The obtained rates should be cautiously interpreted and future research should address the methodological limitations of self-reported TDV, taking into consideration the potential influences of gender, demographics, age, and measurement issues when designing TDV research. (PsycINFO Database Record
Article
Full-text available
Sexist humor may be more difficult to confront than serious expressions of sexism because humor disguises the biased nature of the remark. The present research investigated whether delivering a sexist remark as a joke, compared to a serious statement, tempered perceptions that the speaker was sexist which, in turn, made women less likely to confront. Using a computer-mediated instant messaging paradigm, women were randomly assigned to receive the same sexist remark phrased either in a serious manner or as a joke. We recorded how women actually responded to the sexist remark and coded for confrontation. In Experiments 1 (195 women) and 2 (134 women) we found that humor decreased perceptions that the speaker was sexist. Furthermore, as perceptions that the perpetrator was sexist decreased, women’s confronting also decreased. Experiment 2 demonstrated an additional consequence of reducing the perceived sexism of the perpetrator—it increased tolerance of sexist behavior perpetrated against an individual woman and sexual harassment more generally. Interestingly, the indirect effects only appeared when women at least moderately endorsed hostile sexism. For hostile sexists, failure to identify sexism reduced confrontation and increased tolerance for sexual harassment and sexist behavior. Contrary to popular belief, humor can actually make sexist messages more dangerous and difficult to confront than serious remarks.
Article
Full-text available
This study utilized an experimental design to determine how bystanders would intervene in campus sexual assault (SA) or intimate partner violence (IPV) situations. Specifically, it examines whether the type of intervention (direct, indirect, or delegation) is associated with relational distance, the nature of the crime, or the sex of the bystander. A random sample of college students completed a web-based survey at a private university in the Midwest. Survey participants were randomly assigned two vignettes-an SA scenario (n = 371) and an IPV scenario (n = 350)-with one of three conditions: knew the victim, knew the perpetrator, or knew neither. Chi-square tests, binary logistic regressions, and predicted probabilities were conducted to test three hypotheses. Results indicate that relational distance affects how a bystander will intervene. In the SA vignette, students who knew the victim or perpetrator chose direct intervention. In the IPV vignette, students who knew the victim or perpetrator chose direct or indirect interventions. Students who knew neither the victim nor the perpetrator tended to choose to delegate the intervention to someone else for both crime types. Although there were differences by sex, the larger differences were between whether they knew someone or not. Still, men had the highest probability of directly intervening in the SA scenario, whereas women had the highest probability of indirectly intervening in the IPV scenario. The results of this study suggest that campus violence prevention programs should consider context-specific issues in their trainings such as relational distance and type of crime.
Article
Full-text available
Intimate partner violence (IPV) impacts millions of adults and children every year and can result in homicide, legal proceedings, the involvement of child welfare, and the need for emergency shelter for survivors and their families. Survivors of IPV may develop psychological and somatic symptoms to the trauma, including anxiety, depression, and other mental health related disorders in addition to facing numerous safety, financial, and social challenges. To reestablish stability, effective short-term interventions are needed in order to address these issues survivors face. This systematic review and meta-analysis summarizes the extant literature on short-term interventions for survivors of IPV. Twenty-one studies are included in the analysis and overall effect sizes calculations and moderator analysis were conducted. On average, effects sizes were large (g = 1.02) suggesting that most sort-term interventions are effective, however CBT-based interventions that were tailored to IPV survivors achieved the largest effect sizes. Results of this study are presented in a question and answer format with the intent to guide practitioners, researchers and policy makers. IPV survivors access services in a variety of shelter and outpatient settings and present diverse needs. Although this study contributes a systematic review of the existing literature on IPV, there are relatively few rigorous outcome studies and even fewer that reflect the diversity in this population and the complexity of responding to IPV in real-world settings. © The Author(s) 2015.
Article
Full-text available
Background Little is known about the prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) and its associated factors among adolescents and younger women. Methods This study analyzed data from nine countries of the WHO Multi-country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence against Women, a population based survey conducted in ten countries between 2000 and 2004. Results The lifetime prevalence of IPV ranged from 19 to 66 percent among women aged 15 to 24, with most sites reporting prevalence above 50 percent. Factors significantly associated with IPV across most sites included witnessing violence against the mother, partner’s heavy drinking and involvement in fights, women’s experience of unwanted first sex, frequent quarrels and partner’s controlling behavior. Adolescent and young women face a substantially higher risk of experiencing IPV than older women. Conclusion Adolescence and early adulthood is an important period in laying the foundation for healthy and stable relationships, and women’s health and well-being overall. Ensuring that adolescents and young women enjoy relationships free of violence is an important investment in their future.
Article
Full-text available
In summary: Academics and policy-makers face many challenges in their efforts to reduce intimate partner violence against women. Investing in public education and awareness initiatives is critically important, as is ensuring that these initiatives are well informed, appropriately targeted and properly designed. Finally, constant monitoring will be needed to assess the effectiveness of efforts to change public attitudes that further victimize the women who are victims of intimate partner violence. Language: en
Article
Full-text available
Adolescence is a period of formative biological and social transition. Social cognitive processes involved in navigating increasingly complex and intimate relationships continue to develop throughout adolescence. Here, we describe the functional and structural changes occurring in the brain during this period of life and how they relate to navigating the social environment. Areas of the social brain undergo both structural changes and functional reorganization during the second decade of life, possibly reflecting a sensitive period for adapting to one's social environment. The changes in social environment that occur during adolescence might interact with increasing executive functions and heightened social sensitivity to influence a number of adolescent behaviors. We discuss the importance of considering the social environment and social rewards in research on adolescent cognition and behavior. Finally, we speculate about the potential implications of this research for society. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology Volume 65 is January 03, 2014. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/catalog/pubdates.aspx for revised estimates.
Article
Full-text available
This research examines the relationship between witnessing of intimate partner violence (IPV) and externalizing and internalizing behaviors using birth to age 3 data from a longitudinal study (N = 187). We hypothesized that for infants and toddlers, direct witnessing of IPV, compared to living in a household where IPV occurred, would be more disruptive of behavior because it affects the child's emotional security within the family. Findings supported our hypothesis. Children who witnessed IPV displayed more externalizing behaviors at ages 2 and 3 as compared to children who did not witness IPV or whose mothers were not victims. Findings highlight the importance of assessing whether infants and toddlers witness IPV, as this has implications for infant behavior as well as maternal parenting.
Article
Full-text available
In addition to classroom activities, teachers provide personal and instructional supports meant to facilitate the developing sense of student autonomy. In this article, we offer a way of thinking about autonomy-supportive practices that suggests that such practices can be distinguished at a featural level and that different practices may in fact have different outcomes in terms of student classroom behavior. Specifically, we propose that autonomy support can be manifested in the classroom in at least 3 distinct ways: organizational autonomy support (e.g., allowing students some decision-making role in terms of classroom management issues), procedural autonomy support (e.g., offering students choices about the use of different media to present ideas), and cognitive autonomy support (e.g., affording opportunities for students to evaluate work from a self-referent standard). We offer vignettes of teachers in their classes to illustrate our proposition that autonomy support may be carried out on several planes and may produce different outcomes. Whereas organizational autonomy support may encourage a sense of well-being and comfort with the way a classroom functions and procedural autonomy support may encourage initial engagement with learning activities, cognitive autonomy support may foster a more enduring psychological investment in deep-level thinking.
Article
The present study investigated the relationships between the eight comic style markers and the dark triad traits of personality. A sample of 715 adults (188 men and 527 women aged 19 to 83 years; M = 42.40; SD = 12.74) completed two questionnaires: the Comic Style Markers (CSM) and the Short Dark Triad (SD3). All the darker styles were related to the three facets of the dark triad. Narcissism was mainly related to the lighter styles and was the best predictor of wit. Conversely, the darker styles were best predicted by psychopathy and Machiavellianism, especially irony, sarcasm, and cynicism.
Article
Internet addiction, although not recognized by the WHO or the APA, is a serious and problematic pathology. This meta-analysis shows that the incidence of Internet addiction in adults was high in recent years (2017–2020). The effect size returned according to the random effects model is Z = 24.63; SE = 0.205; p = .001. In addition, high heterogeneity is evident in the research addressing this topic (Q = 1240.719, df = 36, p < .001; I2 = 97.09%). On the other hand, the Eggers test indicated an absence of publication bias. The sample consisted of 30 studies with k = 37 samples from Europe, Asia, America and Oceania. The total sample was constituted by 21,378 participants (51.22% male, 48.78% women; Mean age = 23.55 years). The statistical analyses of meta-regression and model comparison show a complex problem at the international level, explained by age and sex, and apparently also by geographical area. The results of the systematic review show the increase of internet addiction in the new generations, with other variables playing a relevant role, such as: Increase of individualism, lower sociability and enculturation. We conclude highlighting the need to address this problem from a public health approach.
Article
Domestic violence has severe physical and mental health consequences, yet many women remain in abusive relationships. Domestic violence is generally more prevalent among ethnic minorities than among ethnic majorities. Yet, little is known about reasons to stay and leave within ethnic minority groups. Therefore, we examined reasons for staying in and leaving abusive relationships in an ethnically diverse sample of female domestic violence victims from the United Kingdom. In-depth interviews with 20 intimate partner violence victims (40% identifying as ethnic minority) were analyzed using template thematic analysis. We identified three main themes for why women stayed. The first theme was that of investment, which contained the subthemes of marriage, pregnancy, and keeping the family together. The second theme was that of entrapment, which contained subthemes of economic dependence, physical entrapment/social isolation, learned helplessness/coping mechanisms, and religious/cultural beliefs. The third theme was love (no subthemes). Additionally, we identified three main themes for why women left. The first theme was external support, encompassing subthemes of professional support and informal support. The second main theme was fear of harm, which included the subthemes of fear for negative effects on mental health and fear of physical harm. The third theme was that of protecting the children (no subthemes). Among ethnic minority women, some specific reasons to stay appeared more prevalent (i.e., religious beliefs). Identified themes are diverse and support cost-benefit analyses of domestic violence. Applying cost-benefit analyses in practice may enable victims to leave abusive relationships.
Article
Failure to take responsibility for intervening has been identified as a primary barrier to bystander intervention. Building on these findings, we examine how perceptions of responsibility affect responses to witnessing victimization in the online realm—a topic that has received limited attention. Using a maximum-likelihood selection model, we analyze data from the Pew American Trends Panel ( N = 3709) to estimate the effects of respondents’ perceptions of the role different groups should play in addressing online harassment on their likelihood to engage in intervention, target hardening, or inaction in response to witnessing online harassment, conditioned upon their likelihood of having witnessed such behavior. Findings indicate that the greater role respondents believe online users should have in addressing online harassment, the more likely they are to intervene. ( b = .310). The greater role respondents believe law enforcement or elected officials should have in addressing online harassment, the less likely they are to intervene ( b = −.135 and −.072, respectively). These findings have implications for future efforts to curb online harassment through users’ crime prevention efforts.
Article
The main focus of this study is to understand why young people buy the products endorsed by social influencers on social media platforms. Specifically, the first aim of this study was to investigate the motivations young adults have for following social influencers. The second aim was to analyze social identification as a possible underlying mechanism in the relation to these motivations and young adults’ online advertisement clicking and buying behavior. To achieve these aims, we employed an online questionnaire among 415 individuals between 16 and 25 years old. Respondents were asked to choose a social influencer whose social media account they recently visited, and keep that influencer in mind when responding to the survey questions. The results of the survey confirmed that there are six primary factors that motivate young adults to follow their selected social influencers, namely information sharing, cool and new trend, relaxing entertainment, companionship, boredom/habitual pass time, and information seeking. Furthermore, our findings showed that the importance of the motivations for following influencers differed between age groups, genders and educational backgrounds. Finally, social identification played an important role in the relationship between all six motivations and online advertisement clicking and buying behavior.
Article
This article provides a brief overview of adolescence. It highlights the key physical changes related to puberty and identifies the latest understanding of neurological development in young people. It is also recognised, within the article, that this period of rapid change can have an impact on social and emotional wellbeing. There are conditions that typically have an onset during adolescence, examples of this are offered. The term ‘adolescence’ is used to describe the stage of development and growth and ‘young people’ is used throughout to refer to the individuals.
Article
Topic Intimate partner violence (IPV) remains a significant public health problem that is associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality. IPV has become increasingly prevalent in adolescents, with 20% of adolescents between 13 and 18 years reporting physical IPV, and 9% reporting sexual IPV. To assure the best outcomes for adolescents at‐risk for or experiencing IPV, it is critical for psychiatric‐mental health nurse practitioners (PMHNPs) to implement preventive interventions, spanning from primary to tertiary prevention, to address IPV. Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of primary, secondary, and tertiary preventative strategies needed to improve outcomes for adolescents experiencing IPV within the context of the socioecologial model. Sources Used Utilizing PubMed, CINAHL, and PsycINFO, a literature review was conducted to identify relevant publications spanning from 2015 to present. Reference lists of identified articles were also searched. Conclusions PMHNPs must be competent in psychoeducation and counseling, screening, and management of comorbidities and safety planning to assure best outcomes for adolescents exposed to IPV.
Article
The current study tested mediating roles of moral disengagement and relational aggression between Dark Triad and schadenfreude. 309 adults completed online survey comprising Short Dark Triad, the Moral Disengagement, Relational Aggression in Friendships scales and author-generated measure of expressed schadenfreude. Higher levels of psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism were associated with higher levels of schadenfreude, moral disengagement and relational aggression. Moral disengagement and relational aggression mediated the effects of psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism on expressed schadenfreude. The findings suggest that individuals who have “dark” personalities are likely disengage morally and have tendency of relational aggression expressed more schadenfreude. Findings and implication of future research are discussed. Keywords: Dark Triad, Moral Disengagement, Relational Aggression, Schadenfreude
Article
Exposure to sexist humor creates a context in which some men feel comfortable expressing aggressive tendencies toward women (i.e., self-reported rape proclivity). This is in part because this type of humor makes it easier for men who have antagonistic attitudes toward women to express their prejudice without fear of social reprisal. Besides, previous research has demonstrated the influence of motivational variables such as autonomy (initiation or regulation of intentional behavior based on free choice) and control (acting under external pressure) on aggression. We conducted two experiments to explore the hypothetical influence of priming autonomy and control motivations on the relation between sexist humor and the expression of sexually aggressive tendencies toward women. Study 1 ( N = 108) revealed that control-primed men with high (vs. low) scores in hostile sexism reported a higher rape proclivity when exposed to sexist (vs. neutral) humor. These results were partially replicated in Study 2 ( N = 132), assessing the accessibility of aggressive sexual thoughts. This research contributes to our understanding of the influence of sexist humor and motivational orientations in sexist men on the expression of aggressive sexual behaviors directed against women.
Article
The present study collected 2223 tweets of news about the Top 100 celebrities from People Magazine’s Twitter account during the year 2016. A combination of content analysis and social network analysis was used to examine celebrity attributes, news features, and the relationships between celebrities and news topics. Results indicated that news agendas and audiences’ responses were highly different. News coverage was primarily determined by news features, yet audiences cared only about big stars. Regular topics centered on the themes of celebrity news. The celebrity-by-topic network was topic-driven rather than human-driven, demonstrating the nature of the celebrity industry as an embodiment of capitalist society.
Article
Violence against women (VAW) is a global social issue affecting health, social, and legal systems. VAW contributes to the inequities with respect to the social determinants of health that many women face today. The onus on self-care in the face of violence remains almost singularly with the victims. Access to information and services in support of women’s health and safety is fundamental. However, research gaps exist regarding how women access health information across all stages of an abusive intimate relationship. Given the ubiquity of online access to information, the purpose of this scoping review was to provide an overview of online interventions available to women within the context of intimate partner violence (IPV). Research literature published between 2000 and 2016, inclusive, was reviewed: 11 interventions were identified. Findings suggest that online interventions focused on the act of leaving with less emphasis on the experiences that occur after a woman has left the relationship. In addition, the online interventions concentrated on the individual capacity of the survivor to leave an abusive relationship and demonstrated limited understanding of IPV in relation to the broader social-contextual factors. Findings from this research highlight information gaps for women who require significant support after leaving an abusive relationship.
Article
Unprecedented global forces are shaping the health and wellbeing of the largest generation of 10 to 24 year olds in human history. Population mobility, global communications, economic development, and the sustainability of ecosystems are setting the future course for this generation and, in turn, humankind. At the same time, we have come to new understandings of adolescence as a critical phase in life for achieving human potential. Adolescence is characterised by dynamic brain development in which the interaction with the social environment shapes the capabilities an individual takes forward into adult life.3 During adolescence, an individual acquires the physical, cognitive, emotional, social, and economic resources that are the foundation for later life health and wellbeing. These same resources define trajectories into the next generation. Investments in adolescent health and wellbeing bring benefits today, for decades to come, and for the next generation. Better childhood health and nutrition, extensions to education, delays in family formation, and new technologies offer the possibility of this being the healthiest generation of adolescents ever. But these are also the ages when new and different health problems related to the onset of sexual activity, emotional control, and behaviour typically emerge. Global trends include those promoting unhealthy lifestyles and commodities, the crisis of youth unemployment, less family stability, environmental degradation, armed conflict, and mass migration, all of which pose major threats to adolescent health and wellbeing. Adolescents and young adults have until recently been overlooked in global health and social policy, one reason why they have had fewer health gains with economic development than other age groups. The UN Secretary-General's Global Strategy for Women's, Children's and Adolescents' Health initiated, in September, 2015, presents an outstanding opportunity for investment in adolescent health and wellbeing. However, because of limits to resources and technical capacities at both the national and the global level, effective response has many challenges. The question of where to make the most effective investments is now pressing for the international development community. This Commission outlines the opportunities and challenges for investment at both country and global levels (panel 1).
Article
What's news? A front-page news story in the United States might not appear in a newspaper in China. Or a minor story on German television may be all over the airwaves in India. But News Around the World shows that the underlying nature of news is much the same the world over and that people--no matter what their jobs or their status in society--tend to hold similar notions of newsworthiness. In this richly detailed study of international news, news makers and the audience, the authors have undertaken exhaustive original research within two cities--one major and one peripheral--in each of ten countries: Australia, Chile, China, Germany, India, Israel, Jordan, Russia, South Africa, and the United States. The nations were selected for study based on a central principle of maximizing variation in geographic locations, economic and political systems, languages, sizes, and cultures. The remarkable scope of the research makes this the most comprehensive analysis of newsworthiness around the globe: 10 countries studied, each with a university country director; 2 cities in each country examined, one major and one peripheral; 60 news media studied (newspapers, television, and radio news programs), resulting in 32,000+ news items analyzed; 80 focus groups with journalists, public relations practitioners, and audience members; 2,400 newspaper stories ranked according to newsworthiness and compared with how prominently they were published. News Around the World provides remarkable insight into how and why news stories are reported, testing and improving a theory of cross-cultural newsworthiness and is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand international media and journalism.
Article
The study of development is, in and of itself, the study of change over time, but emotions, particularly emotional reactivity and emotional regulation, also unfold over time, albeit over briefer time-scales. Adolescence is a period of development characterized by marked changes in emotional processes and rewiring of the underlying neural circuitry, making this time of life formative. Yet this period is also a time of increased risk for anxiety and mood disorders. Changes in the temporal dynamics of emotional processes (e.g. magnitude, time-to-peak and duration) occur during this developmental period and have been associated with risk for mood and anxiety disorders. In this article, we describe how the temporal dynamics of emotions change during adolescence and how they may increase risk for these psychopathologies. We highlight studies that illustrate how formalizing temporal neurodynamics of emotion may enhance links among levels of analyses from neurobiological to real-world, moment-to-moment experiences.
Article
The prevention of intimate partner violence is a desirable individual and public health goal for society. The purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive assessment of adolescent risk factors for partner violence in order to inform the development of evidence-based prevention strategies. We utilize data from the Rochester Youth Development Study, a two decade long prospective study of a representative community sample of 1000 participants that has extensive measures of adolescent characteristics, contexts, and behaviors that are potential precursors of partner violence. Using a developmental psychopathology framework, we assess self-reported partner violence perpetration in emerging adulthood (ages 20-22) and in adulthood (ages 29-30) utilizing the Conflict Tactics Scale. Our results indicate that risk factors for intimate partner violence span several developmental domains and are substantially similar for both genders. Internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors as well as early intimate relationships are especially salient for both genders. Additionally, cumulative risk across a number of developmental domains places adolescents at particularly high risk of perpetrating partner violence. Implications for prevention include extending existing prevention programs that focus on high risk groups with multiple risks for developmental disruption, as well as focusing on preventing or mitigating identified risk factors across both genders.
Article
Romantic relationships emerge in the early adolescent years and mature over the course of adolescence from initial cross-gender affiliations to dyadic partnerships. Adolescents' romantic relationships are important because they contribute to relational development and foretell the quality of intimate relationships in adulthood. This paper summarizes current research findings on the development of romantic relationships, focusing first on the normative stages of mainstream youth and subsequently on atypical patterns of troubled youth. Peer and family influences on romantic development are considered as well as ethnocultural variation. The paper concludes with several policy implications for community mental health.
Article
This study investigated perceived descriptive norms (i.e., perceived prevalence) for intimate partner violence (IPV) among college students. Male and female college students were asked to estimate the prevalence of IPV for same-sex "typical students" on their campus. Perpetrators of IPV made higher estimates than nonperpetrators. Both perpetrators and nonperpetrators overestimated the prevalence of IPV when compared to actual prevalence rates. Findings lend support for using social-norms-based prevention programs on college campuses.