A Latent Class Analysis of Online-Offline and Victim-Perpetrator Overlap in Adolescent Dating Sexual Abuse and Gender Ideologies in China

• In Event: Online Safety: From Research to Practice

Abstract

Despite ample evidence in the international literature documenting sexual abuse online and offline in adolescent dating violence (ADV), whether there is an online-offline intersection and the victim-perpetrator roles underlying this intersection are not well understood. In dialogue with uneven transformation of gender equality in China, this study looks into nuanced gender ideologies among Chinese youth and their roles in online-offline adolescent dating sexual abuse. Based on survey data collected from high school students of 32 schools in cities and rural counties in Guangdong and Hunan provinces, the latent class analysis finds three primary patterns in victim-perpetrator overlap: an overlap in online-offline controlling acts, followed by an overlap in offline sexual abuse and controlling acts, and an overlap in online and offline sexual abuse. Boys are more susceptible than girls to those overlaps, but this association becomes insignificant after controlling for gender ideologies. The odds of the three patterns increase with the proclivity toward traditional gender ideology, with this tendency being more pronounced in rural than urban areas. Gender ideologies tend to be an important mechanism underlying the gender and contextual differences in the online-offline intersection of ADV sexual abuse.

Authors

• Nicole W.T. Cheung, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

• Kai Lin, University of Technology Sydney

• Jessica C.M. Li, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University