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Mate Value Discrepancy and Attachment Anxiety Predict the Perpetration of Digital Dating Abuse

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Abstract

Research suggests that individual differences in attachment style predict the perpetration of digital dating abuse. In addition to attachment style, no research, to our knowledge, has explored the role of mate value in the perpetration of digital dating abuse. In this paper, we argue that digital dating abuse is a contemporary cost-inflicting mate retention behaviour, where larger mate value discrepancies between partners are associated with higher levels of digital dating abuse (n = 167). As expected, high mate value discrepancy and attachment anxiety were associated with high levels of digital dating abuse. We provide novel support for the relationship between mate value discrepancy and digital dating abuse. Our findings provide support for additional, unexplored factors which lead to the perpetration of digital dating abuse.

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Acknowledgments

We thank James E Bartlett, Robert Dempsey, Alison Owen and Maria Panagiotidi for their valuable comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Staffordshire Centre for Psychological Research, Department of Psychology, School of Life Sciences and Education, Staffordshire University, Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 2DE, UK

    Manpal Singh Bhogal

  2. School of Psychological, Social and Behavioural Sciences, Coventry University, Priory Street, Coventry, CV1 5FB, UK

    Jessica M. Howman

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  1. Manpal Singh Bhogal
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Correspondence to Manpal Singh Bhogal.

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Bhogal, M.S., Howman, J.M. Mate Value Discrepancy and Attachment Anxiety Predict the Perpetration of Digital Dating Abuse. Evolutionary Psychological Science 5, 113–120 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40806-018-0172-6

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