Abstract
Purpose
Despite the myriad benefits associated with accessing digital technologies, there has been considerable concern regarding the prevalence of digital dating abuse (DDA) in youth dating relationships. Using the resilience portfolio model (Hamby, S., Grych, J., & Banyard, V. (2018). Resilience portfolios and poly strengths: Identifying protective factors associated with thriving after adversity. Psychology of Violence, 8, 172–183. https://ifp.nyu.edu/?internalerror=true.) and digital well-being theory (Büchi, M. (2024). Digital well-being theory and research. New Media & Society, 26(1), 172–189.) as scaffolding, this paper describes survivor-centered and strengths-based advocacy approaches to support youth DDA survivors in developing digital resiliency and subjective well-being.
Methods
Using thematic content analysis, this study involved key informant interviews (n = 35) with staff at Intimate Partner Violence organizations in the United States. Data analysis involved multiple rounds of iterative coding.
Results
Five thematic domains were constructed, including affirming that survivors are not responsible for tech abuse, optimizing the benefits of digital technologies and reducing the risks, positioning youth digital expertise as a strength, empowering youth to be critically informed users of digital technologies, and emphasizing boundary setting in digital spaces.
Conclusions
Accessing technology contributes to DDA youth survivors’ well-being and is critical to fully navigate their social environments in the digital age. Rather than limiting the use of technologies, it is important to support youth in becoming critically conscious, informed, and empowered users of digital technologies. Strengths-based and survivor-centered advocacy approaches to nurturing youth resilience involve honoring youth tech expertise, encouraging survivors to define their boundaries in digital spaces, and fortifying youth survivors’ regulatory, psychosocial, and meaning-making strengths. Future digital literacy curricula should prioritize developing DDA youth survivors’ digital resilience rather than overly emphasizing harm reduction approaches that target users’ digital safety and tech literacy behaviors.