Sexting en adolescentes y adultos de Lima metropolitana durante la pandemia COVID-19

Abstract

Objective: Compare the proportion of sexting in a population of adolescents and adults in Metropolitan Lima according to their sex, and describe their perception of how its frequency has affected during the COVID-19 pandemic. Material and method: Cross-sectional comparative descriptive study, with a sample made up of 175 adolescents and adults between 18 and 30 years of age who follow a Facebook page of a university in Metropolitan Lima (Peru). The instrument was a 16-item virtual questionnaire, applied during the period of social isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: The practice of consensual sexting with more than 10 submissions is more frequent in men (14.7 to 25.3%) than in women (6.05 to 13.0%), with a significant difference in the case of sending images or videos (p = 0.026) and written messages (p = 0.033). In the case of forced sexting, although a higher general proportion is reported in men, there was a higher frequency of women who reported having performed this practice more than ten times, although without significant difference (p> 0.05). The confinement produced by COVID-19 did not produce a perception of significant variation for the practice of sexting. Conclusions: Sexting is a more frequent practice among men when it comes to the consensual modality, but the forced modality is more frequent among women. There is no significant difference in the perception of variation in this practice as a result of social confinement.