Positive and negative effects of mediated contact in female victims of bullying Efectos positivos y negativos del contacto mediado en mujeres víctimas de acoso

Abstract

Different studies show that harassment exercised by a man towards a woman is one of the most common forms of interpersonal violence. It has been said, for example, that the act is often performed by someone with whom a prior relationship has been held, and that in one of its variants -the relational harassment- the characteristic feature is an intense and insistent quest for intimacy. A diversification has also been recently noted in the forms of harassment greatly driven by the profound influence that the electronic media (mediated contact) has had in people’s lives. This diversification has led to position harassment as one of the central problems in the field of public health, especially because of the impact (symptoms and resilience) generated on the victims. Yet, despite its importance, research in Mexico has been practically null. Due to this, the main objective of this study has been to know the type of previous relationship that the victim held with the harasser and the relationship between mediated contact, the symptoms it generates and the resilience given the situation. The research was conducted with a sample of 504 Mexican women who had experienced relational harassment (M = 27.68 years) who were administered the Victimization self-Report (Spitzberg & Cupach, 2014). Subsequently, a frequency was conducted to know the type of previous relationship held with the harasser and a Pearson Correlation analysis to determine the degree of association among the variables. The results highlight, on the one hand, that the most common link between harasser and victim is superficial relationship (39%) and, on the other, that trong associations seem to exist among behaviors of mediated contact (social and sexual disrepute, surveillance) and symptomatology, as well as among the intensity of the experience and resilience.