Violencia de Género y Nuevas Tecnologías. Estudio de detección y prevención en el ámbito universitario

Resumo

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have led to new forms of contact and interpersonal relationships as well as a new space in which to deploy digital violence in the form of abuse, harassment, intimidation and behaviors of control and coercion through electronic media. The present research analyzes whether ICTs are the cause of a new form of digital violence and studies the prevalence of this digital violence exercised through screens among university couples. Two studies were carried out, in the United Kingdom and in Spain. In the UK study, first, a quantitative and qualitative methodology was applied: a non-probabilistic purposive or discretionary sampling of 303 (MAge = 22.79; SD; 47.32; 58.7% male) with the use of the Ad hoc questionnaire and two focus groups with students studying in the same country. Second, in the study in Spain, a two-stage random cluster sampling of 528 (MAge = 24.29; SD = 21.41; 69.5% female) Andalusian university students were carried out. For the latter study, the same ad hoc questionnaire was used, which was validated and named the Digital Violence Questionnaire (DVQ), for the detection, measurement and analysis of digital violence within affective-sexual relationships. This research instrument is composed of seven factors and a total of 55 variables presented in 30 items. The main results by factors, in the Spanish sample, were: factor 1, "Cyberstalking of the other", 10.89%; factor 2, "Coercive Control", 11.72%; factor 3, "Emotional Abuse", 18.37%; factor 4, "Denigration", 6.86%; factor 5, "First-person cyberstalking", 10.58%; factor 6, "Isolation", 14.51%; factor 7, "Domination" 20.02%. Thus, the results show a lower prevalence of digital violence in the Spanish sample compared to the English sample, which was composed of more multicultural students due to their nationalities. Females have the highest percentages in the perpetration of digital violence among Spanish students. Despite the low but significant prevalence, it is concluded that, taking into account the impact that electronic media has on the younger populations in their social interactions and interpersonal relationships, the educational and university context should be the object of the creation of different programs of awareness, prevention and specific training against this digital violence.