Digital Forms of Dating Violence: What School Nurses Need to Know

A substantial amount of U.S. teenagers experience physical or sexual abuse within their romantic relationship. With recent technological advances, teenage dating violence can also be perpetrated digitally by harassing or controlling a romantic partner through the Internet or mobile phone. School nurses are naturally positioned to act as first responders for victims of an abusive romantic relationship. As online and offline forms of dating violence are often intertwined, it is imperative that school nurses are able to identify different types of digital dating violence as this could signal the presence of offline forms of dating abuse. Therefore, being able to interpret potential warning signs could help school nurses to play an active role in prevention and intervention of different types of dating violence. In this article, we provide an overview of the recent research on the context and consequences of cyber dating abuse and outline several suggestions for prevention and intervention.