Investigation of the Relationship Between Cyber Dating Violence and Attachment Styles in University Students

Abstract

This study was conducted to adapt the Cyber Dating Violence Scale (CDVS), which was developed to measure whether adolescents and young adults experienced online violence from their partners and whether they used online violence against their partners, into Turkish and to investigate the relationship between attachment styles and cyber dating violence in university students. The scale adaptation study group consisted of 300 participants, and the main study group included 476 participants. The "Cyber Dating Violence Scale”, the "The Experiences in Close Relationships Inventory-I”, and a “Personal Information Form” were used as data collection tools. According to the findings, abuse psychological violence, which is a sub-dimension of cyber dating violence, was predicted by anxious attachment and avoidant attachment of Adult Attachment Styles Scale, and abuse relational violence sub-dimension was predicted only by avoidant attachment sub-dimension. Both victimization relational violence and victimization psychological violence sub-dimensions of cyber dating violence were predicted only by the anxious attachment sub-dimension. Regarding the effect of gender, the avoidant attachment styles and abuse relational violence scores of females were significantly higher than those of males. The findings were discussed according to the literature, and various suggestions were presented in this direction.