Predictive roles of attachment styles and gender roles attitudes on cyber dating abuse of individuals

This study was conducted to investigate the predictive roles of attachment styles and gender roles attitudes on cyber dating abuse of individuals. This research is a correlational design for finding causes of events or phenomena. The sample of the study was composed of 503 people (276 female, 227 male). The data was obtained from the participants via Cyber Dating Abuse Questionnaire Relationship Scales Questionnaire Gender Role Attitudes Scale. Independent samples t-test and one-way analysis of variance were used to assess the differences among individuals' cyber dating abuse exposure and tendency levels in terms of seven demographic variables: gender, age, education level, income level, duration of the romantic relationship, type of the romantic relationship initiation and average time spent online. In the primary analyses of the study, Pearson correlation analysis was used to examine the correlations among the variables. Then, the multiple regression analysis was employed to determine the predictive roles of the main variables. According to the findings of the research, it has been determined that individuals' cyber dating abuse exposure and tendency levels differ according to individuals' gender, education level, income level, type of romantic relationship initiation, duration of romantic relationship initiation and average time spent online. There is a moderately significant negative relationship between gender roles attitudes and all sub-dimensions of cyber dating abuse. There is a significant relationship between all sub-dimensions of attachment styles and all sub-dimensions of cyber dating abuse. This relationship is positive for fearful and preoccupied attachment styles and negative for secure and dismissing attachment styles. In addition, Gender Roles Attitudes and Secure Attachment Style negatively predicts all cyber dating abuse dimensions. Preoccupied Attachment Style positively predicts all cyber dating abuse dimensions. Fearful Attachment Style positively predicts Direct Agression Exposure and Monitoring/Control Exposure dimensions. Keywords: dating violence, cyber dating abuse, gender roles attitudes, attachment styles