Depressive Symptoms and Information Technology/Social Networking Use
Among Adolescent Girls Involved in Dating Violence
Jessica R. Johnson1, Meredith C. Joppa, Ph.D1 & Christie J. Rizzo, Ph.D. 2,3
1Rowan
University; 2Rhode Island Hospital and the Alpert Medical School of Brown University; 3Northeastern University
MEASURES
OBJECTIVE
• Beck Depression Inventory – II (BDI-II)
• Teen dating violence (DV) occurs on a continuum from
• Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996
verbal/emotional abuse to rape and murder (Foshee et al., 1996).
• 21 items assessing existence and severity of
• Researchers are beginning to explore the impact of information
depressive symptoms
technologies (IT; e.g., mobile phones) and social networking (SN; e.g.,
• Clinical cut-off is a total score of 20
Facebook) on adolescent DV behaviors.
• Scores dichotomized as 0 (< 20) or 1 (≥ 20)
• Cyber dating abuse victimization:
• SNCB- Social Networking and Controlling
• has been reported in 26% of currently-dating adolescents’
Behaviors
relationships
• Unpublished measure developed for this study
• is associated with other forms of DV
• 40 items assess whether or not participant has
• is more common among female adolescents
engaged in SN/IT use, cyber controlling behavior
• Zweig, Lachman, Yahner, & Dank, 2014
perpetration and victimization (0=No, 1 =Yes)
• However, little is known about DV-involved adolescent girls’ use of IT
and SN or their experiences with cyber victimization and perpetration
SN/IT Use
of controlling behaviors.
BDI < 20
BDI ≥ 20
• Youth with mental health symptoms are at greater risk of involvement SN/IT behavior
N %YES N %YES χ 2
Have desktop computer
51 67% 21 66% .02
in DV (Wolfe et al., 1998), and time spent on SN sites is positively
Have laptop computer
53 70% 22 69% .01
correlated with depressive symptoms.
Have Cellphone
64 85% 30 94% 1.5
•
Banjanin, Banjanin, Dimitrijevic,& Pantic, 2015
HYPOTHESES
• Frequency of SN/IT use will be greater for teens who report clinical
levels of depressive symptoms.
• Frequency of cyber controlling behavior victimization and perpetration
will be greater for teens who report clinical levels of depressive
symptoms.
METHOD
• Data are from the baseline assessment of a randomized controlled trial
of a group CBT-based intervention to reduce HIV and DV risk among
DV-involved adolescent girls
• 109 girls (ages 14-17; M = 15.75) in a medium-sized New England city
• Endorsed a history of DV in a confidential school-based screening
• Racial/ethnic distribution of the sample:
• 50% Hispanic
• 35% African American
• 22% White
• 8% American Indian
• 3% Asian
• 82% qualified for free or reduced-price lunch.
Have smartphone
Send/receive texts
Have SN profile
Have instant messenger account
44
62
68
37
59%
84%
901%
49%
20
30
29
14
63%
94%
91%
44%
.14
1.9
.01
2.4
BDI ≥ 20
N %YES
21 66%
9
28%
13 41%
12 38%
23 72%
11 34%
5
16%
χ2
.00
1.7
2.6
.36
1.9
.39
.63
Cyber Controlling Behaviors:
Perpetration
BDI < 20
Perpetration
N %YES
Checked partner SN profile for flirting
50 66%
Gave friends fake names
13 17%
Checked partner call list
19 25%
Checked partner texts
24 32%
Jealous after reading partner’s SN profile 44 58%
Found out about partner cheating via SN
31 41%
Found out about partner cheating via texts 17 22%
Cyber Controlling Behaviors:
Victimization
BDI < 20
Victimization
N %YES
Partner asked for SN password
22 29%
Partner asked for buddy list
11 15%
Partner looked at SN profiles for flirting 41 54%
Partner checked call list
32 42%
Partner checked text messages
32 42%
Partner jealous after reading SN profile 34 45%
This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, K23 MH086328, to Christie J. Rizzo, Ph.D.
BDI ≥ 20
N %YES χ 2
14 44% 2.22
6
19%
.31
17 53%
.01
14 44%
.03
16 50%
.57
19 59%
1.9
ANALYSES
•
We used chi-square tests to examine differences in SN/IT and cyber
controlling behaviors between those who did and did not report
clinical levels of depressive symptoms.
RESULTS
• Frequency of SN/IT and cyber controlling behavior, total sample:
• active profile on a SN site (90%)
• text messaging (85%)
• sending photos online (80%) or via text message (57%)
• their partners frequently read texts (44%), checked phone calls
(43%), & looked at SN profiles for evidence of flirting (54%)
• checked their partner’s SN profile to see if someone was flirting
with him or her (66%), reviewed cell phone call lists (30%), or
read text messages (33%)
• Frequency of SN/IT use and cyber controlling behavior did not
differ according to level of depressive symptoms. (all ps > .05).
CONCLUSIONS
• This study is the first to examine SN/IT use and cyber controlling
behavior perpetration/victimization among predominantly ethnic
minority adolescent girls with DV histories.
• Controlling behavior victimization and perpetration via SN/IT are
common: we need to address IT and SN in DV prevention for highrisk adolescents.
• We found no relationship between depressive symptoms and SN/IT
use and cyber controlling behaviors because:
• High risk sample due to history of DV involvement, thus high
levels of controlling behaviors in both groups.
• Some people with depressive symptoms may be socially isolated;
others may see SN/IT as less intimidating than in-person
communication and use it more frequently. These extremes may
balance each other out.
• Other variables may have a greater influence on the frequency of
cyber controlling behaviors, such as peer norms, DV history, or
communication skills.
REFERENCES
1. Banjanin, N., Banjanin, N., Dimitrijevic, I., & Pantic, I. (2015). Relationship between internet use and depression: Focus on physiological mood oscillations, social
networking and online addictive behavior. Computers In Human Behavior, 43308-312. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2014.11.013
2. Foshee, V. A., Fletcher, G., Bauman, K. E., Langwick, S. A., Arriaga, X. B., Heath, J. L., Bangdiwala, S. (1996). The Safe Dates Project: Theoretical basis,
evaluation design, and selected baseline findings. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 12(5, Suppl), 39–47.
3. Wolfe, D. A., Wekerle, C., Reitzel-Jaffe, D., & Lefebvre, L. (1998). Factors associated with abusive relationships among maltreated and non-maltreated youth.
Development and Psychopathology, 10, 61-85.
4. Zweig, J. M., Lachman, P., Yahner, J., & Dank, M. (2014). Correlates of Cyber Dating Abuse Among Teens. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 43(8), 1306–1321.
http://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-013-0047-x
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