“I Define What Hurts Me”: A Co-Cultural Theoretical Analysis of Communication Factors Related to Digital Dating Abuse

Abstract

Intimate partner abuse (IPA) is a social burden that has plagued women for centuries. Even with the passage of the Violence Against Women Act, IPA is still common in many intimate relationships today. Increased advancements in communication technology reveal an increase in how abuse occurs between relational partners. As such, the authors apply a unique scholarly approach to a long-standing societal problem: they examine co-cultural communication practices associated with digital (IPA) against women. Specifically, this analysis focuses on the co-cultural communication experiences of young women, ages 18 to 24 years old, in digitally abusive heterosexual romantic relationships. The authors use qualitative, in-depth interviews to identify their strategic responses to digital acts of IPA. Co-researchers offered varied descriptions of their experiences with digital IPA. These descriptions were clustered largely around 5 co-cultural orientations aligned with nonassertive and assertive assimilation, accommodation, and separation preferred outcomes. The study of communicative tensions and strategies associated with digital IPA may inform violence prevention education for both youth and adults alike.

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