Abstract
Adolescent sexting is a serious public health concern and is associated with adverse psychosocial outcomes, including depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, declining academic performance, and health problems. Effective prevention of sexting requires a comprehensive and deep understanding of the multiple contexts whereby sexting is likely to occur. The present study explores individual and contextual risk and protective factors that are associated with sexting behavior among a large sample of adolescents. Participants were high school students in midwestern U.S. (N = 2501; LGB n = 309, 76.4% female; non-LGB n = 2192, 47.4% female) who completed self-report measures of sexting and risk (e.g., pornography exposure, impulsivity) and protective (e.g., social support) factors. Path analysis models were conducted with the sexting outcome for groups of LGB and non-LGB students. Among LGB students, results indicated a significant association between sexting and parental monitoring (b = −0.08, p < 0.01); pornography exposure (b = 0.13, p < 0.05); dating partners (b = 0.01, p < 0.01); bullying perpetration (b = 0.17, p < 0.001); and delinquency (b = 0.13; p < 0.001). Among non-LGB students, significant associations were found between sexting and alcohol/substance use (b = 0.05, p < 0.001); bullying (b = 0.08, p < 0.001); and delinquency (b = 0.06, p < 0.001). Moderation analyses suggest that parental monitoring may have a buffering effect between sexting and several risk factors. Recommendations for practitioners include considering the protective factors of sexting perpetration and encouraging appropriate levels of parental monitoring and the continued importance of bullying and alcohol and drug prevention programming to decrease risk factors of sexting perpetration.
Highlights
Teen sexting, which is defined as electronically sending sexually explicit images, has received a significant amount of research attention in recent years [1]
Descriptive statistics suggest that LGB students had only slightly higher levels of sexting perpetration when compared to heterosexual students
LGB students had higher levels of risky behaviors, such as pornography exposure, number of dating partners, sexual activity, bullying, delinquency, and alcohol and substance use when compared to heterosexual students
Summary
Teen sexting, which is defined as electronically sending sexually explicit images, has received a significant amount of research attention in recent years [1]. A recent United States study of a national estimate of youth indicated that of the 1560 internet users (ages 10–17), 7.1% of youth had appeared in or created nude or nearly nude photos [2]. According to Patchin and Hinduja’s [3] study, which included a national U.S sample of 5593 middle and high school students, 13% of the students had reported sending a sexually explicit photo via text message. An overwhelming amount of literature documents continued concern regarding youth’s involvement in sexting because of the negative outcomes that are. Public Health 2020, 17, 9477; doi:10.3390/ijerph17249477 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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