Sexting, psychological distress and dating violence among adolescents and young adults.
BACKGROUND
Sexting is the exchange of sexually explicit or provocative content (text messages, photos, and videos) via smartphone, Internet, or social networks. Recent evidence enlightened its relationships with several risk and aggressive behaviors. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the amount of sexting, psychological distress, and dating violence in adolescents and young adults.


METHODS
The study involved 1,334 participants (68% females; mean age = 20.8) who completed a survey containing Kinsey Scale, Sexting Behavior Questionnaire, Conflict in Adolescent Dating Relationships Inventory, and General Health Questionnaire.


RESULTS
Results showed gender and sexual orientation differences: Males (vs. females) did more sexting, while non-heterosexuals (vs. heterosexuals) were more involved in sexting. Moreover, high/moderate users of sexting committed more offline and online dating violence. Regarding psychological distress, no differences were found between high and low/moderate users of sexting.


CONCLUSIONS
Results suggested that moderate and high use of sexting could be a risk factor for some problematic behaviors such as dating violence, even if there is not a relationship with anxiety and depression symptoms.
Sapienza Universitá di Roma.
Mara
M
Morelli
Dora
D
Bianchi
Roberto
R
Baiocco
Lina
L
Pezzuti
Antonio
A
Chirumbolo
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006716:Homosexuality; D006801:Humans; D000066511:Intimate Partner Violence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D057566:Self Report; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology*; D060145:Text Messaging / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult