Technology-facilitated abuse of young adults in the United States: A latent class analysis

Abstract

Awareness of the growing potential for technology-facilitated abuse (TFA) raises questions about the prevalence of the problem overall and in various forms. The current study fielded a newly developed comprehensive measure of 27 different forms of TFA in a nationally representative sample of US adults ages 18–35. Item response theory analytic techniques were applied to identify items that captured the range of young adult experiences, resulting in a 17-item version of the Cyber-Abuse Research Initiative (CARI) scale. Latent class analyses were applied to identify person-centered profiles of TFA victimization. Seven out of ten respondents reported TFA victimization of some or multiple forms, which LCA results indicated could be characterized as five different TFA profiles. The probability of membership in TFA victimization profiles, compared to those respondents reporting low exposure to no TFA, was greater for women, LGBQA+ young adults, and for individuals who consider themselves to have a public following. In addition to providing the flexible, comprehensive CARI scale for ongoing research, the current results may be applied towards both TFA prevention and disruption efforts.