Demystifying sexting: Adolescent sexting and its associations with parenting styles and sense of parental social control in Israel

Abstract

Dolev -Cohen, M., & Ricon, T. (2020). Demystifying sexting: Adolescent sexting and its associations with parenting styles and sense of parental social control in Israel. AbstractThe present study examined sexting habits (sending text messages, as well as nude or semi-nude photos, and/or requesting the same from others) among adolescents, as reported by 458 students (101 boys, 357 girls), with the aim of investigating whether and how sexting correlates with parenting styles and manifestations of parental social control. An online link was published on social media, asking participants who meet the research criteria to complete several questionnaires. About 30% of the participants reported sending sexual messages, and almost 32% reported that others, mainly strangers, asked them to send nude or semi-nude photos. Furthermore, sexting was more common among high-school students than among middle-school students, and asking another person to send nude or semi-nude photos was more common among boys than among girls. Lower parental social control was related to increased likelihood of sexting, and higher perception of permissive parenting style was associated with asking someone else to send nude or semi-nude photos. These findings shed light on sexting among adolescents in Israel. Moreover, the findings show that adolescents do not report sexting either to parents or to other significant adults in their lives, such as teachers or other educational staff at school. The article concludes with implications for educators and educational counselors in view of these findings. About AuthorsMichal Dolev-Cohen, PhD, is a senior lecturer and researcher in cyberpsychology. She is also head of the center for learning and research online vulnerability, in the educational counseling program at Oranim Academic College of Education, Israel. Her major research interests include expression of online sexuality among adolescents (such as: sexting, sextortion, revenge porn), cyberbullying, parents-adolescents relationship in the digital era and more.Tsameret Ricon, PhD, is a senior lecturer and head of Educational Counseling Program in the Faculty of Graduate Studies at Oranim Academic College of Education in Israel. Her research interests are in parenting, stress, school psychology, parents-educational team relationships, school counselors burnout and compassion fatigue.

Development and Validation of the Adolescent Sexting Scale (A-SextS) with a Spanish Sample

“…The estimated rate of asking another person to send a nude photo in the Dolev-Cohen and Ricon [40] study (95% CI: 9.5%, 15.6%) is also consistent with our pooled estimate (95% CI: 9.4%, 14.6%), despite our measure also including video content. Our estimate does not coincide with that obtained by Dolev-Cohen and Ricon [40] when the person requested to send a nude photo is an established partner (95% CI: 3.7%, 7.9%), but is relatively close (95% CI: 9.2%, 15.5%).…”

“…Our estimate is slightly higher when the addressee is an established partner (95% CI: 13.5%, 29.2%), but the intervals are close (95% CI: 32.4%, 41.8%). This is similarly the case in comparison with Dolev-Cohen and Ricon's [40] estimate regarding the same addressee, experience, and content (95% CI: 12.3%, 18.9%). The estimated rate of asking another person to send a nude photo in the Dolev-Cohen and Ricon [40] study (95% CI: 9.5%, 15.6%) is also consistent with our pooled estimate (95% CI: 9.4%, 14.6%), despite our measure also including video content.…”

“…Fourth, as several scholars have argued that the risks young people engaged in sexting are exposed to may differ according to the recipient of the content [25,38], our work distinguishes up to three different addressees. The difference between our classification of addressees and that of other authors is that a fourth type of addressee, identified as a "stranger" by Burén and Lunde [38] and Dolev-Cohen and Ricon [40], for example, was dismissed from our study after having been defined by our discussion groups as someone adolescents know nothing about, have never seen, have never spoken to, and have no intention of knowing or speaking to. Fifth, this scale also responds to exigencies detected in previous studies with regard to whether sexting occurs due to one's own initiative or in response to a request [55], and with regard to whether the sender shows their own face or not in the pictures or videos [17].…”

“…Among the available empirical literature on sexting prevalence, we found four comparable studies that included similar samples and distinguished between addresses in their instruments. The empirical studies selected were those of Burén and Lunde [38], Schloms-Madlener [39], Dolev-Cohen and Ricon [40], and Quesada et al [41] To compare sexting experiences not defining a specific addressee (e.g., posting), we considered the empirical studies of Gregg et al [29], Jonsson et al [42], Kerstens and Stol [43], and Kopecky [44].…”

Sexting Types and Motives Detected among Slovak Adolescents

“…The research results showed that male respondents were more active regardless of the sexting type and motive. These findings are supported by other researches proving that boys are more involved in sexting, requesting photos from girls, importing such photos, as well as collecting and trading them (RINGROSE et al 2012;HOLLA 2017;DOLEV-COHEN & RICON 2020). Girls, on the other hand, became resigned and passive (HOLLA 2017).…”