The Association Between Dark Triad And Cyber Dating Abuse Perpetration Among College Students

In the digital age,cyber dating abuse perpetration has emerged as an essential and emerging public health problem.Cyber dating abuse perpetration refers to a range of abusive behaviors including surveillance,control,harassment,threats,and coercion of current or former dating partners by individuals in dating relationships using modern communication devices and social media.Since cyber dating abuse perpetration is very common among college students and brings serious physical,psychological,and social functioning harms to both abusers and victims,it is of great practical significance to explore the influencing factors of cyber dating abuse perpetration and its underlying mechanism.The general aggression model argues that dark triad is an important antecedent variable influencing cyber dating abuse perpetration,however,previous studies on the relationship between dark triad and cyber dating abuse perpetration have not reached a consensus conclusion.In addition,no research has revealed the underlying mechanisms of dark triad on cyber dating abuse perpetration.Also,all relevant studies are from overseas,and domestic research on cyber dating abuse perpetration is still in the initial exploration stage.Based on this,this study focuses on the relationship between dark triad and cyber dating abuse perpetration among college students,and the mediating role of hostile cognition and anger in such association,which is expected to provide suggestions for intervention and prevention of cyber dating abuse perpetration among college students in the digital age.This study consisted of the following two parts: Study 1 revised the Chinese version of the Cyber Dating Abuse Perpetration Questionnaire(CDAPQ-CV)in a group of Chinese college students to examine its reliability and validity in the Chinese cultural context,so as to provide a reliable assessment tool for evaluating cyber dating abuse perpetration among college students.Based on the general aggression model and related empirical studies,a total of 894 college students completed a cross-section questionnaire survey including the CDAPQ-CV,the Dirty Dozen,the hostility cognition and anger subscales of the Aggression Questionnaire in Study 2.This study examined the current status of the dark triad,cyber dating abuse perpetration,hostile cognition,and anger,and further explored the potential mechanisms of hostile cognition and anger in the relationship between dark triad and cyber dating abuse perpetration among college students.The main findings of this study are as follows:(1)CDAPQ-CV were divided into two dimensions: direct aggression and monitoring/control,and had good reliability and validity in the Chinese cultural context.(2)College students’ dark triad personality trait total or dimensional scores differed significantly by gender,educational levels,and sibling status.Specifically,male students had significantly higher psychopathy scores than female students,while female students had significantly higher narcissism scores than male students;undergraduate and graduate level college students had significantly higher narcissism scores than professional level college students;and non-only child college students had significantly higher total dark triad and narcissism scores than only child college students.(3)There were significant differences in hostility cognition scores among college students by gender and educational levels.Female students had significantly higher levels of hostile cognition than male students.In addition,both undergraduate and graduate level college students had significantly higher hostility cognition scores than professional level college students.(4)Anger scores among college students differed significantly by gender and educational levels.On the one hand,female students had significantly higher anger scores than male students.On the other hand,anger scores were significantly higher for both undergraduate and graduate level college students than for professional level college students.(5)There were significant differences in college students’ total or dimensional scores of cyber dating abuse perpetration by gender,educational levels,and grades.First,male students had significantly higher scores than female students on total cyber dating abuse perpetration and direct aggression scores.Second,graduate level college students scored significantly higher than undergraduate level college students on total cyber dating abuse perpetration scores,and graduate level college students scored significantly higher than college students at both the professional and undergraduate levels on control.Third,sophomore and senior level undergraduates scored significantly higher on control than freshmen students.(6)Dark triad,hostile cognition,anger,and cyber dating abuse perpetration were positively correlated with each other.(7)Dark triad could not only directly affect college students’ cyber dating abuse perpetration,but also indirectly affect through two paths: the separate mediation of anger,and the chain mediation effect of hostile cognition and anger.According to the results of the current study,four educational suggestions are proposed.The first is to strengthen the awareness of cyber dating abuse perpetration behaviors of college students,the second is to help college students to effectively improve the level of hostile cognition,the third is to guide college students to learn how to properly deal with anger,and the fourth is to focus on cultivating positive bright personality traits of college students.