Dating Violence and Digital Dating Abuse among University Students: Case of EMU

Violence experienced in dating relationships, constitutes one of the most significant public health problems. Dating is significant for young people when reaching adolescence. Dating violence is one of the frequently experienced types of violence. Currently, internet and social media occupies an important place in our lives and hence dating violence takes the form of digital dating abuse and starts to appear between romantic partners. The present research is a quantitative study conducted in order to explore the attitudes of university students towards dating violence and whether they experience or perpetrate digital dating abuse in their current or previous relationships. The sample of the research consists of 405 students 198 (48.9%) of whom are female and 207 (51.1%) are male students studying at four different social sciences faculties of Eastern Mediterranean University in the spring semester of 2017-2018 academic year. For data collection, an in-house questionnaire was used to gather data on the dating abuse that university students perceive and apply in romantic relationships. Independent sample t-tests were conducted to examine whether there is a relationship between the participants’ gender and their perpetration and victimization level of digital dating abuse. According to the results of the study, there is a statistically significant relationship in the t-test results for determining the perpetration and exposure level of digital dating abuse according to the gender of university students (p≤0,01). Women are exposed to digital dating abuse more than men. 83 (39.5%) of participants who are in a relationship state that they are exposed to violence in their present relationship and other 87 (41.4%) of them stated that they are perpetrating dating violence towards their partners. Keywords: Dating Violence, Digital Dating Abuse, University Students, Social Media, Gender Studies.