Primary Submission Category: Social/relational factors
Technology-facilitated intimate partner violence and young adult mental health
Authors: Michelle Livings,
Presenting Author: Michelle Livings*
Recent work emphasizes technology-facilitated intimate partner violence (TFIPV) as a concerning trend for population health, particularly among adolescents and college students. In this study, I use data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), the only contemporary survey of a birth cohort of young adults, to explore associations between TFIPV and mental health outcomes.
I focus on 1,100 young adults in the year-22 FFCWS survey who reported that they were in a serious relationship, engaged, or married. Experience of TFIPV is the binary predictor of interest, defined as a respondent reporting at least one of the following behaviors: their partner pressured them to “sext,” to respond quickly to texts or calls, or to share their location; their partner shared their naked photos with other people without permission; their partner logged in to their social media or email without permission; their partner posted a mean public message about them on social media. Logistic regression results show that experience of TFIPV is associated with depression (OR=1.5, 95% CI 1.1-2.0), but not anxiety, among the full study sample. This association is driven by the young women in the sample: young women who experienced TFIPV have higher odds of both depression (OR=2.4, 95% CI 1.6-3.6) and anxiety (OR=1.8, 95% CI 1.0-2.9), while these associations are not statistically significant among young men. These results are also robust when models are adjusted for reported experience of physical IPV.
This study adds to the growing literature suggesting that TFIPV is negatively influencing mental health among younger populations. These findings emphasize the need for mental health interventions that encourage healthy boundaries among intimate partners in a world where individuals – and relationships – are increasingly dependent on technology.