Sexting behavior among adults in Turkey and its relationship with self-esteem and risky sexual behavior

Abstract

Introduction The aim of this study is to determine the sexting behavior among adults, the cause of sexting, consequences of sexting and to evaluate the relationship between risky sexual behavior and self-esteem Methods The study was completed with 5464 participants. The individuals were grouped as the sender, recipient, or two-way sexter. The 10-item second section evaluates self-esteem (Rosenberg), and the 10-item third section evaluates risky sexual behavior (Stulhofer). Results Mean age was 27.63 ± 7.95 years and 71.3% of the participants were male. Sexting rate of the participants was 55.5%. Who never had sexting 27.1%, and who sent and received sexual messages was 56.4% and 72.0%, respectively. Although there was no significant correlation between self-esteem and sexting behavior. Over 25 years old were 2.19 times, bisexuals and gay/lesbian 2.02 times, single individuals 2.65 times, and those exhibiting risky sexual behaviors were 2.35 times more prone to sexting behavior Conclusion This study was conducted on sexting with large participation in Turkey more than half of the participants exhibited sexting was higher especially among young adults. Even though there was no relationship between self-esteem and sexting behavior, it was found that the rate of sexting behavior was higher in individuals with risky sexual behavior.