Psychological Abuse in the Context of Social Media

Psychological abuse between partners is a significant aspect of partner abuse. With the rise of technology and social media usage, we seek to examine how cyber partner abuse is related to traditional understanding of psychological abuse, and also how it is unique. Cyber partner abuse is described along with current measurements and initial findings in this new field. We examine how specific behaviors of cyber partner abuse can be understood in terms of traditional psychological abuse (i.e., face-to-face abuse). Although some features overlap, unique aspects of cyber partner abuse qualify it as a distinctive sect of psychological abuse. We describe how these distinctions call for a deeper analysis of how technology affects romantic relationships. In particular, we discuss how this construct is being measured and the challenges that future researchers may face when studying this multifaceted term.