# Cyber Dating Abuse and Maxeline Gender Norms in a Sample of Male Adults
## 1 Introduction
### Gender Norms and Dating Abuse  
One risk factor that is frequently theorized for men's offline aggression toward their partners is sticking to conventional gender roles. The gender role theory indicates that \"gender roles set socially constructed expectations and norms about appropriate male and female behavior, characteristics, roles, and the culturally acceptable dynamics between males and females\" [32]. Indeed, the review by [PERSON] et al. [33] revealed that one of the risk factors in men for exercising physical perpetration to an intimate partner is the traditional masculine gender role ideology, although with a moderate effect size (r = 0.29). Gender role norms can be defined as a set of rules that guide and prescribe what men must do, think or feel [34]. Conformity to gender role refers to the extent to which men agree with or meet the gender expectations that their culture imposes [35]. From this point of view, gender is inherently linked to contextual influences [36] and the degree to which gender roles are emphasized in a given context depends on the culture examined [37]. In a cross-cultural study involving 25 countries, [PERSON] and [PERSON] [38] found variations in the internalization of gender roles that were attributable to cultural differences. However, the major finding was a high degree of pancultural similarities in the gender roles differentially associated with women and men in the 25 countries studied. [PERSON] et al. [39] found that male university students in Spain reported lower conformity rates of gender norms than North American university students in dimensions such as disdain for homosexuality, the importance of winning, pursuit of status, attraction of violence, power over women desires, and risk-taking behaviors. Nevertheless, students in Spain reported greater conformity regarding searching for multiple sexual relationships without commitment. Masculine gender norms are related to social command, power over women, violence, and self-sufficiency [34]. If power and control are the factors stressed in the construction of masculinity, female-related abusive or controlling behaviors can be congruent with this construction [40]. Indeed, traditional masculine gender roles have been related to aggression between partners [41], which suggests that men exercising abuse have extreme masculine identification and inflict abuse to show their masculinity. Along the same lines, previous studies confirmed that supporting more traditional masculine gender roles on men is a predictor of the perpetration of psychological violence [42]. Conversely, the men who present low levels of conformity to these norms are more prone to behave prosocially and to display less aggression [43]. However, other studies have found that men on the opposite end of the conformity continuum with gender roles (men who adhere less to masculine norms), can also participate in aggressive and violent behaviors in romantic relationships as they do not conform to the ideal manhood that stems from social norms [32]. In such cases, aggression can be a mechanism to overcome their lack of adapting to traditional gender norms or to defend themselves from attacks to their masculinity [44]. Along these lines, [PERSON] et al. [45] found that men who did not conform to traditional masculine norms experience gender role stress and more negative reactions in their intimate relationships (e.g., irritation, jealousy, and rage). Other studies have found that gender role stress was related to control behaviors in a sample of male perpetrators against women [40]. However, [PERSON] et al. [32] found no interaction between discrepancies with gender roles (i.e., being less masculine than the typical man) and the stress that emerges from this discrepancy (i.e., anxiety from being less masculine) with perpetrating dating violence. Although they did find a relation between gender role stress and a higher risk of perpetrating sexual violence. The relation between gender role norms and cyber dating abuse has been less analyzed than offline abuse.