Digital dating abuse (DDA) is a pattern of behaviors using mobile phones and social media to harass, pressure, coerce, and threaten a dating partner. Little is known about teen girls’ and boys’ motivations to perpetrate digital dating abuse. This study drew from survey research with 703 high school students and used multiple methods to explore DDA motivations. Quantitative analyses found that frequent motivations for DDA behaviors included it was a joke, I was upset, I was angry, and we were in a fight. Few gender differences were found. Qualitative data pattern analysis provided additional context to DDA motivation responses. Patterns of DDA motivations differed depending on the type of DDA behavior. When participants reported multiple motivations for a behavior, there was some common clustering of motivations across participants. It was a joke was indeed a common motivation for some DDA behaviors, but participants often reported multiple motivations, which made these responses more difficult to interpret. Sexual DDA behaviors were particularly gendered. These results have important implications for our understanding of DDA perpetration among teens and future DDA assessment and measurement.

数字约会滥用（DDA）是一种使用手机和社交媒体骚扰，压迫，胁迫和威胁约会对象的行为方式。关于少女和男孩进行数字约会虐待的动机知之甚少。这项研究来自对703名高中生的调查研究，并使用多种方法探索DDA动机。定量分析发现，DDA行为的频繁动机包括开玩笑，我不高兴，我生气和我们在战斗。几乎没有发现性别差异。定性的数据模式分析为DDA动机响应提供了额外的环境。DDA动机的模式因DDA行为的类型而异。当参与者报告某种行为的多种动机时，参与者之间存在一些共同的动机聚类。开玩笑的确是某些DDA行为的普遍动机，但参与者经常报告多种动机，这使得这些反应更难以解释。性DDA行为尤其具有性别特征。这些结果对于我们对青少年DDA行为的了解以及未来DDA评估和测量具有重要意义。