Cyber-intrusions: strategies of coping with online obsessive relational intrusion

Abstract

The current study explored how victims of Internet-related stalking crimes cope with relational intrusions. Using a communication privacy management framework, research questions examined strategies that victims used in response to the relational pursuit, the effectiveness of these strategies, and the relationship between the coping strategies and the online obsessive relational intrusion behaviors. Participants were either college students who were victims of online pursuits or victims who were directed to an online survey from a support website for cyberstalking victims. The results indicated that victims used eight coping strategies, of which ignore/avoidance, technological disassociation/disengagement, and help-seeking, were the most common. A technological privacy maintenance strategy was perceived as the most effective of all the strategies. The association between the eight coping strategies and 19 online relationally intrusive behaviors, and implications for the broader domain of privacy management and mediated communication are discussed.