Abstract:
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2006), 5.3 million intimate
partner abuse (IPA) incidents occur in the United States every year, resulting in
approximately two million injuries and 1,300 deaths among women. Exposure to
interpersonal abuse in dating relationships often begins in early adolescence and
continues into adulthood. The National Council on Crime and Delinquency (2008)
reports that approximately one in three adolescent girls (16 to 19 years) in the United
States experience physical, emotional, or verbal abuse from a dating partner.
Additionally, the increased use of information and communication technologies, such as
the Internet and cell phones, continues to become a prominent part of social life among
teens and young adults. The rapid rate at which technology is developing has led to an
emergent shift from face-to-face forms of IPA to digital forms of IPA. For example,
according to the Family Violence Prevention Fund (2009), approximately one in three
teens reported the experience of receiving text messages from a partner, up to 30 times in
one hour, with questions regarding where they were, what they were doing, and/or who
they were with. Given the prevalence of the growing phenomenon, this analysis will
focus on co-cultural communication enacted by young women in digitally abusive
heterosexual romantic relationships. Using a co-cultural theoretical frame of analysis, this
study seeks to better understand communication practices of young women interacting as
co-cultural group members within dominant societal structures. In particular, photovoice
is used as a qualitative method to identify the co-cultural communication orientations and
responses to acts of digital dating abuse in heterosexual romantic relationships. Data
analysis revealed 15 salient themes with regard to women’s lived experiences of digital
dating abuse and the co-cultural strategies used to manage such abuse. These accounts
provide insight into the diverse communicative strategies and standpoints of the digitally
abused women who participated in this study, and have implications for women, social
science research, medical practice, educators/advocates, and society at large.
