Technology-facilitated sexual violence among Italian youths: validation of the technology-facilitated sexual violence victimization scale
Technology-facilitated sexual violence (TFSV), i.e. the use of digital communication technologies for facilitating sexual violence and harassment, represents a concern due to its exponential growth, particularly among youths. Few studies investigated TFSV, mainly due to the lack of a validated asses...
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| Published in: | Frontiers in psychiatry Vol. 15; p. 1449183 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Switzerland
Frontiers Media S.A
01.11.2024
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| Subjects: | |
| ISSN: | 1664-0640, 1664-0640 |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | Technology-facilitated sexual violence (TFSV), i.e. the use of digital communication technologies for facilitating sexual violence and harassment, represents a concern due to its exponential growth, particularly among youths. Few studies investigated TFSV, mainly due to the lack of a validated assessment tool, such as the TFSV-Victimization scale (TFSV-VS). Our study aimed to investigate the TFSV phenomenon in a sample of Italian young adults (aged 18-24), through the validation of the Italian translated version of TFSV-VS.
The study consisted of two phases: 1) validation of the Italian version of TFSV-VS; b) evaluation of TFSV lifetime and during the last 12 months among Italian youths.
In our sample, 78.6% and 56.1% of subjects reported a lifetime and 12-months TFSV victimization, respectively. Digital sexual (70.4% and 46.6%), gender and/or sexuality-based harassment (43% and 29.6%) are those most represented. A gendered and sexuality-based pattern in lifetime TFSV was observed, mainly observed among females (p=0.005) and sexual/gender minority (SGM)(p=0.001). Being female (
<0.001) and perceiving low social support (
= 0.030) were associated with higher subjective distress related to traumatic TFSV experiences. Being female (
<0.001), younger (
=0.006) and perceiving low social support (
=0.030) were associated with the highest psychological distress due to TFSV.
Italian TFSV-VS shows good psychometric properties. Our findings observed a gendered trend of TFSV, by suggesting TFSV as a phenomenon influenced by SGM belonging. |
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| Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
| ISSN: | 1664-0640 1664-0640 |
| DOI: | 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1449183 |