Information Technology, Social Networking, and Controlling Behaviors Among Adolescent Girls Involved in Dating Violence Meredith C. Joppa, Ph.D. 1, Christie J. Rizzo, Ph.D. 2,3, & Jessica Johnson, B.A. 1 1 Rowan University; 2 Rhode Island Hospital and the Alpert Medical School of Brown University; 3 Northeastern University OBJECTIVE Teen dating violence (DV) occurs on a continuum from verbal/emotional abuse to rape and murder Foshee et al., 1996 Researchers are beginning to explore the impact of information technologies (IT; e.g., mobile phones) and social networking (SN; e.g., Facebook) on adolescent DV behaviors. Cyber DV: Occurs in 26% of currently-dating adolescents’ relationships Is associated with other forms of DV Is more common among female adolescents Zweig, Lachman, Yahner, & Dank, 2014 However, little is known about DV-involved adolescent girls’ use of social networking and information technology (SNIT) or their experiences with cyber DV and perpetration of controlling behaviors. The present study examined SNIT use and associated controlling behaviors in a sample of predominantly ethnic minority, economically disadvantaged adolescent girls with a history of DV involvement. HYPOTHESIS Girls with DV histories will report high levels of involvement in SNIT as well as frequent engagement in controlling behaviors via SNIT. METHOD Data are from the baseline assessment of a randomized controlled trial of a group CBT-based intervention to reduce HIV and DV risk among DV-involved adolescent girls 109 girls (ages 14-17; M = 15.75) in a medium-sized New England city Endorsed a history of DV in a confidential school-based screening Racial/ethnic distribution of the sample: 50% Hispanic 35% African American 22% White 8% American Indian 3% Asian 82% qualified for free or reduced-price lunch MEASURES Social Networking and Controlling Behaviors Unpublished measure developed for this study 40 items assess whether or not participant has engaged in SNIT use, cyber controlling behavior perpetration and victimization (0=No, 1 =Yes) RESULTS SNIT Frequency Nearly all participants reported having an active profile on a SN site, text messaging, and sending photos online Many also sent photos via text message Maintaining an SN profile was the most common behavior, while instant messaging was the least common. SNIT Controlling Behavior Frequency Close to half of the participants reported that their partners felt jealous after reading their SN profile or looked at their SN profiles for evidence of flirting. Many participants engaged in similar own controlling behaviors via SNIT: over two-thirds reported that they felt jealous after reading a partner’s SN profile or looked at an SN profile for evidence of flirting. Partner controlling behavior via SNIT was reported more frequently than participant perpetration. CONCLUSIONS This study is the first to examine SN/IT use and cyber controlling behavior perpetration/victimization among predominantly ethnic minority adolescent girls with DV histories. Our findings suggest that controlling behavior victimization and perpetration via IT/SN is common, highlighting the need to address IT and SN in DV prevention for high-risk adolescents. Our results also have policy implications: DV education is mandatory in 15 states, and school-based DV prevention curricula would benefit from incorporating examples of and strategies for avoiding SNIT controlling behaviors. It will be important to tease apart both within-person and between- person differences in SNIT and controlling behavior involvement in this sample. For example, previous research with this sample showed no differences in SNIT and controlling behavior involvement according to level of depressive symptoms. Johnson, Joppa, & Rizzo, 2015 Future research should examine differences in SNIT and controlling behaviors according to relationship status and length, peer norms, and individual factors such as emotion regulation. This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, K23 MH086328, to Christie J. Rizzo, Ph.D. REFERENCES 1.Banjanin, N., Banjanin, N., Dimitrijevic, I., & Pantic, I. (2015). Relationship between internet use and depression: Focus on physiological mood oscillations, social networking and online addictive behavior. Computers In Human Behavior, doi: /j.chb Foshee, V. A., Fletcher, G., Bauman, K. E., Langwick, S. A., Arriaga, X. B., Heath, J. L., Bangdiwala, S. (1996). The Safe Dates Project: Theoretical basis, evaluation design, and selected baseline findings. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 12(5, Suppl), 39–47. 3.Johnson, J. R., Joppa, M.C., & Rizzo, C. J. (2015, April). Depressive symptoms and information technology/social networking use among adolescent girls involved in dating violence. Poster presented at the 2015 Rowan Psychology Research Conference, Glassboro, NJ. 4.Wolfe, D. A., Wekerle, C., Reitzel-Jaffe, D., & Lefebvre, L. (1998). Factors associated with abusive relationships among maltreated and non-maltreated youth. Development and Psychopathology, 10, Zweig, J. M., Lachman, P., Yahner, J., & Dank, M. (2014). Correlates of Cyber Dating Abuse Among Teens. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 43(8), 1306– SNIT Use Cyber Controlling Behaviors: Perpetration Cyber Controlling Behaviors: Victimization SNIT BehaviorN%YES Have desktop computer7267% Have laptop computer7569% Have Cellphone9488% Have smartphone6460% Send/receive texts9287% Have SN profile9790% Have instant messenger account5147% Controlling BehaviorN%YES Checked partner SN profile for flirting7166% Gave friends fake names2220% Checked partner call list3230% Checked partner texts3633% Jealous after reading partner’s SN profile6762% Found out about partner cheating via SN4239% Found out about partner cheating via texts2220% Controlling BehaviorN%YES Partner asked for SN password3633% Partner asked for buddy list1716% Partner looked at SN profiles for flirting5854% Partner checked call list4643% Partner checked text messages4844% Partner jealous after reading SN profile5349%