The Role of Moral Disengagement in Perpetrating Cyber Dating Violence Between Young Adults

Introduction: “Cyber Dating Violence” (CDV) represents a form of violence within romantic relationships perpetrated or experienced through digital tools such as social networks or messaging platforms. It includes controlling behaviors, humiliation or threats by a partner or ex-partner, constituting an online transposition of traditional dating violence, amplified by anonymity, speed, and persistence of online contents. Objectives: This study investigates how self-control and moral disengagement contribute to the perpetration of cyber dating violence (CDV) among young adults, to better understand the underlying risk factors. Furthermore, the present study aimed to analyze the possible moderating effects of gender and sexual orientation in the relationship between self-control and CDV, as in that between moral disengagement and CDV. Methods: An online survey was administered to 911 Italian young adults, aged between 18 and 30 (M = 22.3; SD = 2.57; 74% women; 70.4% exclusively heterosexual). Overdispersed Poisson regression analysis was conducted to account for the observed overdispersion in the dependent variable. Results: The perpetration of CDV is significantly and negatively predicted by self-control, Exp(B) = 0.98, p < 0.01, and positively by moral disengagement, Exp(B) = 1.26, p < 0.01. Furthermore, men tend to perpetrate this form of violence more than women, Exp(B) = 1.30, p < 0.05. No statistically significant interaction effects were found. Implications: In conclusion, it has been proved that gender, low self-control, and greater moral disengagement are predictive factors for CDV perpetration. It is essential to develop and implement preventive and educational interventions aimed at promoting socio-cognitive mechanisms underlying self- regulation processes, which can prevent dating violence behaviors, even in the online context.