Cyber-aggression and psychological aggression in adolescent couples: A short-term longitudinal study on prevalence and common and differential predictors.

This study examined the prevalence of cyber-aggression in Spanish adolescent couples as well as the common and differential predictors for cyber-aggression and psychological aggression using a short-term longitudinal study. Over a 6-month period, six hundred and thirty-two (632) Spanish adolescents with romantic relationship experience from seven schools were randomly selected to participate in the study (51% male; average age ¼15.03). The results revealed a prevalence of cyber-aggression of 13% and that 68.3% of adolescents engaged in psychological aggression. Girls were significantly more involved than boys in both forms. The analysis of predictors for cyber and psychological aggression showed that these two forms of aggression shared a common factor, negative couple quality. Furthermore, cognitive empathy predicted cyber-aggression whereas anger regulation and jealousy predicted psychological aggression. These results highlighted the need to consider the particular characteristics of each setting, face-to-face and online, for designing future prevention programs.

Results highlight that both, cyber and psychological aggression presented a conflictual nature. Anger and jealousy predicted psychological aggression, nonetheless, anger and jealousy were not associated to cyber aggression over time. On the other hand, cognitive empathy predicted cyber aggression but not psychology aggression and emotional and cognitive predictors affect both forms of violence differently. Muñoz-Fernández & Sánchez-Jiménez (2020: 7) highlight that "even though the prevalence of cyber-aggression was not as alarming as that of psychological aggression, it is a form of violence that should be addressed in future studies, specially from a prevention perspective". The authors point out that results of this study provided evidence that should be considered in the design of dating violence prevention curriculum-based programs that should emphasize "contents that address how to deal with conflicts when they appear in romantic relationships, the development of positive conflict resolution strategies, healthy communication skills, and emotion regulation strategies as well as tackling contents related to specific predictors of cyber-aggression, such as cognitive empathy. " (Muñoz-Fernández & Sánchez-Jiménez, 2020: 7-8). [Text adapted by the coder from the original manuscript]