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The Digital Abuse Study: Incidence of Negative Experiences Online

The Incidence of Negative Experienced Online measure uses a single multi-response item from the MTV and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research Digital Abuse Survey. It assesses the prevalence of negative online behaviors such as controlling behaviors, breeches in privacy, impersonations, or threats among young adults (14-24 years old).

Categories

Geographies Tested: United States of America

Populations Included: Female, Male

Age Range: Adolescents, Adults

Items:

1. For each of the following items, please say whether this has happened to you, or not.

  • Someone looked at your text messages and recent call log in your phone without your permission
  • Someone wrote something about you on an Internet page that wasn’t true
  • Someone wrote something about you on an Internet page that was really mean
  • Someone put embarrassing pictures or videos of you on an Internet page without your permission
  • Someone spied on you by logging into your email account or Facebook, Twitter, or other Internet account without your permission
  • Someone used email, IM or cell phone text messages to spread rumors about you that weren’t true
  • Someone impersonated you by logging into your email account or Facebook, Twitter, or other Internet account without your permission
  • Someone sharedsent to another person an email or IM you had sent them that you didn’t want shared
  • Someone used an e-mail message, IM or cell phone text message or post on an Internet page yo threaten to harm you physically
  • Someone found embarrassing information about you on the Internet and used it to tease you in person
  • Someone videotaped or photographed you doing something embarrassing without your knowledge and shared it with other people
  • Someone used email, IM, text messaging or a site like Facebook or Twitter to say they were interested in dating you, and later told you they were only pretending
  • Someone threatened to send e-mail text messages or post things on sites like Facebook or Twitter telling other people private things about you, true or untrue, if you did do as they demanded
  • Someone found some embarrassing information about you on the Internet and shared it with other people without your permission
  • Someone sent you email, IM or cell phone messages encouraging you to hurt yourself
  • Someone impersonated you by creating a fake Facebook profile for you

Response Options:*
Has happened to me
Has not happened to me

* Numeric codes for the Response Options above were not provided in the original report.

Scoring Procedures

Not Applicable

Original Citation

Tompson, T., Benz, J. & Agiesta, J. (2013). The digital abuse study: Experiences of teens and young adults. https://apnorc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/AP-NORC-Center-and-MTV_Digital-Abuse-Study_FINAL.pdf


Psychometric Score

Ease of Use Score

Scoring breakdown

Formative Research

Qualitative Research

Existing Literature/Theoretical Framework

Field Expert Input

Cognitive Interviews / Pilot Testing

Reliability

Internal

Test-retest

Interrater

Validity

Content

Face

Criterion (gold-standard)

Construct

KEY

Ease of Use

Readability

Scoring Clarity

Length

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