Recommended Instruments for Analyzing Cyber Dating Violence: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Cyber dating violence is an emerging form of dating violence that may have serious health effects on adolescents and young people, and in recent years interest in its study has increased. In order to understand completely the nature and magnitude of the problem, a clear understanding of the concept, constructs and well-established measurement tools are needed. The goal of this study was to analyze the measurement instruments of cyber dating violence in adolescents and young adults, and to determine which are the best suitable to use. To accomplish these objectives a systematic review was carried out. After reviewing the literature, twenty-four measurement instruments were analyzed, with important differences found between them in terms, constructs, dimensions and measurement attributes, as well as differences in their assessed psychometric properties. Once the methodological quality evaluation of the instruments was carried out following COSMIN (COnsensus based Standards for the selection of health Measurement Instruments) guidelines, three scales were found to be recommendable depending on the age and cultural context of participants: Cyber Dating Abuse Questionnaire (Borrajo, Gámez-Guadix, Pereda, et al., 2015), Technology-facilitated Abuse in Relationships Scale (Brown and Hegarty, 2021), and Abuse in Teen Relationships (CARPA; Calvete et al., 2021).