Individual factors of expected and unexpected sexting and the subsequent feelings: A nationally representative study in adolescents

Abstract

Sexting is prevalent among adolescents, yet we lack an understanding of adolescents’ responses to its various forms and the factors that may drive those responses. This study adopts an integrative media effects framework and a nationally representative sample of Czech adolescents (11–16 years old, N = 2500, 50% girls) to investigate: (1) the associations between depression, loneliness, self-esteem, happiness, sensation seeking, age and gender, and the different types of sexting behavior (both expected and unexpected receiving and sending of sexts); and (2) the role of individual factors in feeling happy and upset after different types of sexting. While we found a similar pattern for the associations of individual factors with engagement in the three sexting behaviors, we found no pattern for the associations across the outcomes (i.e. feeling happy and upset). Our findings show that the outcomes of sexting must be researched as individual behaviors, not as one “sexting” behavior.