Cyber dating abuse: Assessment, prevalence, and relationship with offline violence in young Chileans

The aims of the present study were to (1) adapt and validate the Cyber Dating Abuse Questionnaire (CDAQ) for young Chileans and (2) provide data on the prevalence of cyber dating abuse in young Chileans. As a sample, 1,538 Chilean high school and university students (14-24 years old) participated in the study (59.8% females). Results showed that the CDAQ had an adequate fit with the original correlated four-factor model as well as with a second-order factor model that considered the four scales as primary factors of two secondary factors: victimization (control and aggression from the victimization perspective) and perpetration (control and aggression from the perpetrator's perspective). Reliability analysis also showed that the questionnaire presented satisfactory values for internal consistency. Scores on the CDAQ were positively correlated with traditional forms of assessing dating violence, providing new evidences of validity. Prevalence data showed cyber dating behaviors are common practices among young Chileans, with around three quarters of that population reporting being victims or aggressors. Finally, prevalence of control (around 72% for both perspectives) was higher than direct aggression (34.4% for victimization and 27% for direct aggression).