Online Violence in Adolescent and Young Adult Couples: The Role of Anxious Attachment and Hostile Sexism in a Dyadic Analysis

Abstract

This study explores how anxious attachment moderates the relationship between hostile sexism and online violence in adolescent and young adults’ partners. 230 heterosexual couples (total n=460) participated in a dyadic design study. Both partners answered a questionnaire about online violence, hostile sexism, and anxious attachment. Results show that both members’ hostile sexism positively correlates with the perpetration and victimization of online violence in boys and girls, but not in all the dimensions. However, actor hostile sexism has a greater effect on both perpetration and victimization for both members than partner hostile sexism, except for control perpetration and victimization of girls. Results also show that the actor-anxious attachment positively moderated the relationship between their hostile sexism and perpetration and victimization for both members, only when it was higher than average, and negatively when it was lower. In girls, when the anxious attachment is high, the relationship between the boys’ hostile sexism and the girls’ direct aggression perpetration becomes weaker. The opposite occurs between the boys’ hostile sexism and boys’ direct aggression perpetrated when their girlfriends’ anxious attachment increases. In sum, anxious attachment and hostile actor- and partner-sexism play an important role in online violence in adolescent couples. Therefore, the protective effect of low levels of anxious attachment should be studied among other psychosocial factors and online violence.