Development and Validation of Breadcrumbing in Affective-Sexual Relationships (BREAD-ASR) Questionnaire: Introducing a New Online Dating Perpetration.

Mª Carmen Rodríguez-García,Verónica V Márquez-Hernández,Genoveva Granados-Gámez,Lorena Gutiérrez-Puertas,Gabriel Aguilera-Manrique,Helena Martínez-Puertas

doi:10.3390/ijerph17249548

Mª Carmen Rodríguez-García, Verónica V Márquez-Hernández + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17249548

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Abstract

New technologies are changing people’s lifestyles and in turn, their way of relating to and interacting with others. Breadcrumbing is one of the new 2.0 concepts linked to the virtual relationship paradigm. This study aimed to design and psychometrically test the Breadcrumbing in Affective-Sexual Relationships (BREAD-ASR) Questionnaire to explore breadcrumbing perpetration in adolescent relationships online. A total of 247 adolescents participated in a paper-and-pencil survey carried out from March to June 2019 in a high school in southeastern Spain. Psychometric analysis showed a satisfactory content and construct validity for the instrument. The ordinal alpha coefficient was 0.83, indicating the BREAD-ASR questionnaire had good internal consistency. The BREAD-ASR questionnaire constitutes a valid and reliable instrument which can be used by health professionals in screenings for breadcrumbing perpetration and to design effective prevention and intervention programs in the community, which may help and support adolescents and families to deal with new forms of online relationships and perpetration successfully.

Highlights

People’s lifestyles and their way of relating to and interacting with others are changing due to new technologies [1]
Breadcrumbing perpetration can last for weeks or months and it may be a dangerous practice given its association to the feelings of guilt, anxiety and pain reported by victims [11]
The content validity index (CVI) was calculated in order to analyse content validity

Summary

Introduction

People’s lifestyles and their way of relating to and interacting with others are changing due to new technologies [1]. Breadcrumbing, known as “Hansel and Gretelling” [8], is one of the new emerging concepts linked to the virtual relationship paradigm This term, which comes from the idea of figuratively throwing someone breadcrumbs, is one of the latest trends in dating, and one with which particular precaution must be taken [9]. Breadcrumbing perpetrators tend to avoid uncomfortable or negative interactions, such as expressing feelings, because of their fear or inability to commit to another person [7] Though this type of behavior can happen both online and offline, using social networks and applications are the most common ways of expressing these dangerous behaviors [19]. Breadcrumbing perpetration can last for weeks or months and it may be a dangerous practice given its association to the feelings of guilt, anxiety and pain reported by victims [11]

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