Este artículo estudia la violencia digital nacida con las nuevas formas de comunicación a través de internet en la pareja sentimental. Tras la revisión teórica, se detecta la falta de un instrumento que mida tal violencia digital, entendida como aquella violencia ejercida mediante los dispositivos electrónicos de uso común dentro de la pareja sentimental en forma de control, acoso, abuso y coacción. El objetivo de esta investigación es la construcción y validación del cuestionario de Violencia Digital (en inglés Digital Violence Questionnaire, DVQ). Para ello se han utilizado las técnicas de juicio de personas expertas, trabajo de campo y análisis factorial exploratorio. Se realizó un muestreo bietápico aleatorio por conglomerados en la Universidad de Huelva (España) formado por 528 estudiantes. Tras un pilotaje y un grupo de personas expertas, resultó un instrumento de 90 ítems, subdivididos en cinco bloques de evaluación, además de las variables sociodemográficas y variables relacionales en el noviazgo. El formato de respuesta es de tipo Likert con carácter bidireccional en algunas preguntas, permitiendo medir la perpetración y victimización en la prevalencia de esta violencia. La fiabilidad del cuestionario mediante el coeficiente alfa de Cronbach fue de 0,945. Tras el análisis factorial exploratorio, el análisis de componentes principales y la rotación varimax, se obtuvo una solución factorial de 7 factores y un total de 55 ítems. Se concluye que el cuestionario de Violencia Digital (DVQ), resulta un instrumento válido y fiable, adecuado para la detección y prevención de la violencia digital.

This research studies the prevalence of digital violence exercised through new information and communication technology (ICT) among university couples. A comparative study was carried out in England, United Kingdom, and in Spain with 831 participants. A quantitative methodology was applied with different sampling: in the United Kingdom, 303 (M_Age = 22.79; SD; 47.32; 58.7% male) and in Spain, 528 (M_Age = 24.29; SD = 21.41; 69.5% female). An ad hoc questionnaire was used, created for the detection, measurement and analysis of digital violence within affective-sexual relationships. The results reveal proportions of 51.04% and 49.82% in the perception of digital violence through electronic devices in dating relationships among young people; 15.84% and 11.05% in the prevalence of digital violence in young couples’ relationships; 9.36% and 6.17% in the prevalence of traditional violence; and 35.78% and 22.43% in the tolerance of digital violence among students, for the English and Spanish samples, respectively. The results also show a slightly lower prevalence of digital violence in the Spanish sample with respect to the English sample, where females scored slightly higher in the perpetration of digital violence. There is a need to develop awareness, training and prevention programs against digital violence in the university context.

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have given rise to new forms of contact as well as new forms of violence. This research analyses whether ICTs are the cause of a new form of digital violence and studies the prevalence of this digital violence exercised through screens among university couples. A quantitative and qualitative methodology was applied in this study: a non-probabilistic purposive or discretionary sample of 303 (Age = 22.79; SD = 47.32; 58.7% male), with the use of an ad hoc questionnaire, and two focus groups of students studying in the same country. The results reveal a prevalence of 51.04% in the perception of digital violence through electronic devices in dating relationships among young people; 15.84% in the prevalence of digital violence in young couples’ relationships; 9.36% in the prevalence of traditional violence; and 35.78% in the tolerance of digital violence among young people. The results highlight a slightly higher prevalence of women compared with men in digital violence. We conclude that there is a significant prevalence of digital violence among these young couples in the university context, which should be the subject of the creation of different awareness-raising, prevention and specific training programmes against it.

Resumen: Este trabajo de investigación conforma un estudio de género basado en la novela Cincuenta sombras de Grey de E. L. James (2012), dada su gran repercusión como fenómeno de masas a nivel mundial incidiendo, en mayor medida, en el colectivo femenino. Dado que esta novela realiza una apología de la violencia de género, este estudio pretende analizar las claves de su éxito donde se valore la desigualdad de género existente en la sociedad a partir de la aceptación de los mitos del amor romántico y los micromachismos representados en esta obra; y, a su vez, contrastar si existe una correlación entre este éxito y una tendencia de fantasías sexuales sadomasoquistas que se hayan podido despertar a través de dicha novela. Con una muestra de 102 sujetos, los resultados desvelaron que estos mitos y micromachismos existentes en la sociedad son identificados en la teoría, pero aceptados en la práctica cotidiana; y que el sadomasoquismo no supuso un ingrediente de éxito para la repercusión de Cincuenta sombras de Grey.

The general objective of the study is to study the degree of gender-based violence that exists among students at the University of Huelva. The sample of 678 students (540 women and 138 men) answered an anonymous and voluntary questionnaire, which was made up of several validated questionnaires. The results show that many of the students have rarely suffered or carried out any type of violent behavior in their relationships, although there is a very low percentage who claim to have suffered gender-based violence, so we can affirm that it is a phenomenon present to a greater or lesser extent. It is observed that students easily relate physical aggressions to gender-based violence while they hesitate to relate psychological aggressions to it. This difficulty can be supported by other studies that state that adolescents believe that some actions of psychological violence—such as being jealous—are simply signs of love. This is compounded by the large number of romantic myths that are increasingly spread through social networks, media, family patterns, etc. More educational interventions are therefore needed to prevent these outcomes from leading to unhealthy relationships disguised as excessive romanticism.