“I’m Throwing the Red Flag”: Online Peer Responses to Teen Descriptions of Abusive Relationship Behaviors Posted on Reddit

Authors

Kyla M. Cary, Illinois State UniversityFollow
Morgan E. Pettyjohn, University of Texas at Arlington
Erin Nolen, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2026

Publication Title

Journal of Interpersonal Violence

Keywords

internet and abuse, teen dating violence, dating violence, intimate partner abuse, support seeking, sexual assault

Abstract

Adolescents in the United States experience abusive relationship behaviors at alarming rates; yet formal education on navigating harmful relationship dynamics is lacking. Thus, many teens use the internet to disclose abuse experiences and seek information or advice from their online peers. To better understand the types of responses, advice, and information teens receive from their online peers, we analyzed peer-to-peer discussions about abusive relationship behaviors from teens in the Reddit community r/teenrelationships. Using qualitative content analysis, we analyzed comment responses (n = 154) to Reddit posts (n = 56) in which teen users discussed experiences of interpersonal harm or abuse. We constructed 4 primary themes and 14 associated subcategories. Responses were predominantly supportive in tone, with commenters providing advice for next steps (84%), education in healthy versus unhealthy relationships (70%), and general support (44%). A smaller proportion (21%) of comments were categorized as unsupportive or misleading. These findings emphasize the importance of including psychoeducation on how to respond to disclosures of abuse in prevention programming for teen dating violence and developing online interventions to facilitate and support help-seeking behaviors.

Funding Source

This article was published Open Access thanks to a transformative agreement between Milner Library and Sage Journals.

Comments

First published in Journal of Interpersonal Violence (2026): https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605251412882

Recommended Citation

Cary, K. M., PettyJohn, M. E., & Nolen, E. (2026). “I’m Throwing the Red Flag”: Online Peer Responses to Teen Descriptions of Abusive Relationship Behaviors Posted on Reddit. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605251412882

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

DOI

10.1177/08862605251412882