Gender-Based Dating Violence and Social Media Among Spanish Young People (2024 PDF)

behavioral sciences Article Gender-Based Dating Violence and Social Media among Spanish Young People: A Qualitative Study Marta García-Ruiz 1 , María Dolores Ruiz-Fernández 2,3, * , María del Mar Jiménez-Lasserrotte 2 , Isabel María Fernández-Medina 2 and María Isabel Ventu...

behavioral sciences Article Gender-Based Dating Violence and Social Media among Spanish Young People: A Qualitative Study Marta García-Ruiz 1 , María Dolores Ruiz-Fernández 2,3, * , María del Mar Jiménez-Lasserrotte 2 , Isabel María Fernández-Medina 2 and María Isabel Ventura-Miranda 2 1 Virgen de las Nieves University Hospital, 18014 Granada, Spain; [email protected] 2 Department of Nursing Science, Physiotherapy and Medicine, University of Almeria, 04120 Almeria, Spain; [email protected] (M.d.M.J.-L.); [email protected] (I.M.F.-M.); [email protected] (M.I.V.-M.) 3 Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Autónoma de Chile, Temuco 4780000, Chile * Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract: (1) Gender-based dating violence is common among adolescents. This violence has global repercussions and can have immediate and delayed consequences on health. Also, cases of dating violence and sexual abuse using technology are increasing. The aim of this research is to describe and understand the perceptions and experiences of Spanish university students aged 18 to 22, about gender-based dating violence and its perpetuation through social media. (2) A qualitative descriptive study was used, following the five consolidated criteria for reporting and publishing COREQ qualitative research. (3) The inductive analysis of the data obtained in the focus group session and the individual interviews of the twelve participants was organised into three major themes: the concept of gender violence that Spanish youth have, the education they have received on gender-based violence and whether they consider that social media are a way to exercise this type of violence. (4) Spanish youth have a broad vision of the attitudes and behaviours that make up gender-based dating violence in an affective relationship. The education received at home is of vital importance for young people, but not all receive it. Social media are frequent tools through which many young people perpetuate controlling partner violence and normalise aspects and situations of Citation: García-Ruiz, M.; Ruiz- gender violence, making it necessary to stress them in prevention programs. Fernández, M.D.; Jiménez-Lasserrotte, M.d.M.; Fernández-Medina, I.M.; Keywords: dating violence; young people; social media; university students; perceptions Ventura-Miranda, M.I. Gender-Based Dating Violence and Social Media among Spanish Young People: A Qualitative Study. Behav. Sci. 2024, 14, 1. Introduction 575. https://doi.org/10.3390/ According to the World Health Organization , youth is defined as people between bs14070575 the ages of 10 and 24, with adolescence being defined as the period between the ages of 10 Academic Editor: Xiaochun Xie and 19. During this period, romantic relationships can be stressful and overwhelming due Received: 16 April 2024 to the restructuring of interpersonal roles, issues around identity formation and sexuality Revised: 4 July 2024 and possible rejection and break-ups that challenge conflict resolution and coping skills. Accepted: 5 July 2024 The denomination of these romantic relationships, or courtship, varies according Published: 7 July 2024 to different authors. On the one hand, some of them consider courtship as a formal relationship between two people that will end in marriage, while others consider it as a relationship between a couple that is known by family and friends but does not have a marital purpose. Also, courtship could be defined as a period of acquaintance between Copyright: © 2024 by the authors. both partners who are attracted both physically and mentally, perform social activities Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. together and have a marital or non-marital purpose. However, courtship has evolved This article is an open access article over time, along with society. Until the beginning of the 20th century, the union between distributed under the terms and two people was far from the romantic character it has today in the West, still perpetuated conditions of the Creative Commons in some cultures, consisting of an arranged union based on economic, religious, class or Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// political interests for families. Accordingly, interactions between the two partners have creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ changed over the years. Until the 19th century, romantic dates took place in the intimacy of 4.0/). Behav. Sci. 2024, 14, 575. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs14070575 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/behavsci Behav. Sci. 2024, 14, 575 2 of 14 marriage and family, extending to other public spaces at the end of this century, distancing them from family life. Currently, young couples live their romantic relationships through mobile phones and social media, which are the ways they use to communicate. Both mobile devices and social media influence the behaviour and attitudes of young people, and therefore their courtships, becoming a reflection of today’s society and generating both positive and negative changes in relationships. Within courtship, we find dating violence (DV) which refers to any emotional, physical violence, sexual abuse, stalking or cyber abuse that comes from a couple in which at least one of the partners is young. This type of violence is common among adolescents, with the highest prevalence rate found in young people aged 18–22. In the case of Spain, up to 46.6% of women aged 16–24 years had experienced some type of violence by their partner. Due to a higher incidence in women , the fact that this type of violence tends to have worse consequences for the female gender and that research on gender- based violence has shown that these attitudes begin in courtship , it was considered important to analyse this type of violence with a gender-based approach (gender-based dating violence), emphasising that gender-based violence refers to “any act of violence that results in threatened or actual physical, sexual or psychological harm, including threats, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life” (, p.2). A study conducted in Andalusian universities found that the most common behaviours within GBDV were, firstly, cyberbullying (68.22%), secondly, psycho-emotional violence (49.71%), followed by control and surveillance attitudes (44.63%), sexual abuse (16.68%) and, finally, physical violence (5.60%). Another research study conducted in Canada stated that one in three young people were victims of any physical, psychological and/or cyberbullying in the last year. Similarly, a study conducted in Brazil stated that 31.9% of adolescent participants had experienced physical violence, 36.4% sexual violence and 81.8% psychological violence. This violence has global repercussions and can have immediate and delayed health consequences. These consequences include mental health problems such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and/or anxiety [20,21] or physical health problems such as unplanned pregnancies or STDs. In addition, academic problems, suicidal ideation and even suicide attempts may occur. Over time, GBDV has been analysed in a similar way to adult violence, summarised as sexual, physical, psychological and bullying violence, with a gap forming in the study of other types of GBDV such as abuses via social media , such as Facebook (Meta Platforms Inc., Menlo Park, CA, USA), Instagram (Meta Platforms Inc., Menlo Park, CA, USA) and X (previously Twitter) (X Corp., San Francisco, CA, USA), which have enormous social influence, constituting the main means of entertainment and news dissemination. Although there is a fair amount of research on in-person (face-to-face) forms of GBDV, how it can occur via technology is barely being assessed. Cases of dating violence and sexual abuse through the use of technology are on the rise. This type of violence is associated with poorer mental health, a higher risk of substance use, a higher risk of other forms of non-digital violence and a higher number of suicide cases. On the other hand, knowing the perceptions of this type of violence is of vital impor- tance in order to prevent it, since these beliefs intervene in the interpretation of violent behaviour. However, no attention has been paid to these perceptions. Therefore, the aim of this study was to describe and understand the perceptions and experiences of young Spaniards aged 18–22 on gender-based dating violence and its perpetuation through social media. 2. Materials and Methods A descriptive qualitative study was carried out as it provides a description of subjective ideas within a sample of people on a given topic. Furthermore, this research modality was chosen as it uses systematic criteria that allow for the organisation of the study’s phenomena to be established, providing systematic information that is comparable with Behav. Sci. 2024, 14, 575 3 of 14 other studies. The consolidated criteria for reporting and publishing qualitative research COREQ were followed. Participants were young people aged between 18 and 22 with Spanish nationality. They were recruited through purposive sampling via the social media Instagram and Twitter during the month of January 2023, following the following inclusion criteria: being between 18 and 22 years old (both inclusive), residing in Spain and being a person who cooperates. Finally, 12 young people participated whose characteristics and demographic data are reflected in Table 1. As can be seen, all the participants had a university education and some of them combined their studies with temporary jobs. Most of the young people were female and their sexual orientation was predominantly heterosexual. Furthermore, only one young person in the sample was transgender (a person who is born with a biological sex with which they do not identify, perceiving themselves as a different sex, without considering a physical change necessary). On the other hand, most of the sample was in a courtship, whether formal or informal. Finally, for a better understanding of the table, we described some terms such as cis, a Latin word meaning “on the same side of”. Therefore, cisgender people were those who identify with the same gender they were assigned at birth due to their biological sex. On the other hand, the term “closed couple” refers to a romantic relationship between two people who have mutually agreed not to engage in sexual or affective romance with other people. Finally, the expression “roll” refers to an affective and/or sexual relationship between two young people that they do not consider as serious or formal, but as temporary and of little relevance. Table 1. Participant demographics. Age Gender Sexual Orientation Sentimental Situation Years in Relation Studies/Work P1 22 Woman cis Heterosexual Closed, distant pair 2.5 years Medicine and waitressing P2 21 Men cis Heterosexual Single - Medicine and chess professor Physiotherapist and Master’s P3 22 Woman cis Bisexual Roll 10 months student P4 22 Woman cis Heterosexual Roll