Digital Media as a Context for Dating Abuse: Connecting Adaptive and Maladaptive Coping Strategies to Young Adult Women’s Well

As the nature of interpersonal communication has shifted with the widespread use of technology, so have the possibilities for abuse. Like face-to-face abuse, digital abuse can be stressful. Digital dating abuse is an emerging form of dating violence in the United States and is thought to have serious health effects on young people. The types of coping strategies used by victims have important implications for their overall health and well-being. Research suggests that the differing social positions of young women and young men will lead them to handle dating conflicts differently. Here, we assert that young women in digitally abusive relationships function as co-cultural group members in dominant societal structures. As such, co-cultural theory was employed to better understand how young adult women’s coping strategies function both adaptively and maladaptively. Specifically, 10 semistructured, in-depth interviews were conducted at a large mid-Atlantic university with young women who were previously in a digitally abusive heterosexual romantic relationship. Thematic analyses revealed three factors that influence the adaptive nature of their coping: time-based efficacy, normalization of abuse, and directness of communication. Overall, the women largely chose to enact maladaptive coping strategies when dealing with digital dating abuse