Prevalence of sending, receiving and forwarding sexts among youths: A three-level meta-analysis

Abstract

By systematic review with a three-level, mixed-effects meta-analysis, this paper examines the prevalence of sexting experiences among youths aimed at analyzing conceptual and methodological moderators that might explain its heterogeneity. A search was conducted of five bibliographic databases and grey literature up until February 2020. The risk of bias in primary studies was assessed. A total of seventy-nine articles met the set inclusion criteria. Mean prevalences for sending, receiving and forwarding sexts were .14 (95% CI: .12, .17), .31 (95% CI: .26, .36) and .07 (95% CI: .05, .09), respectively, expressed as fractions over one. Moderator analyses showed that all sexting experiences increased with age (e.g., the mean prevalence for sending sexts at the age of 12 was .04, whereas, at the age of 16, it was .21) and year of data collection (e.g., the mean prevalence for sending sexts in studies collecting data in 2009 was .07, whereas, in studies collecting data in 2018, it was .33). Subgroup analysis revealed that studies with probabilistic samples led to significantly lower mean prevalences for the sexting experiences of sending (.08, 95% CI: .06, .11), receiving (.19, 95% CI: .15, .24) and forwarding sexts (.04, 95% CI: .03, .07). Self-reported administration procedures also led to more homogeneous prevalence estimates than interviews. Prevalence estimates also varied according to the type of media content (e.g., the mean prevalence for sending sexual text messages was .22, whereas, for sending sexual images or videos, it was .12). Overall, our meta-analysis results suggest high and increasing prevalences of sending and receiving sexts among youths.

Sending One's Own Intimate Image: Sexting Among Middle‐School Teens

“…In this paper, 7% of 13 to 14-year-old pupils reported to have already sent a sexually related image of themselves. This rate is in line with the results of a meta-analysis 39 that found 4% among 12-yearolds and 9% among 14-year-olds. The increase in the rates of this meta-analysis study with the age of the respondents is also in line with our result showing that an older age is associated with the practice of sending such images.…”

“…Compared to previous research that focused exclusively on middle‐school adolescents, 24 , 25 , 26 this rate (7%) is in the upper range but is quite similar to the most recent study. 24 The similarity in terms of higher rates with the most recent study shows that the practice has certainly increased over the years 39 , 41 because of the democratization of smartphones and access to the Internet, and the development of applications facilitating the private sharing of digital images. 42 …”

“…40 Compared to previous research that focused exclusively on middle-school adolescents, [24][25][26] this rate (7%) is in the upper range but is quite similar to the most recent study. 24 The similarity in terms of higher rates with the most recent study shows that the practice has certainly increased over the years 39,41 because of the democratization of smartphones and access to the Internet, and the development of applications facilitating the private sharing of digital images. 42 Contrary to public opinion, certainly fueled by the one-way gendered scenarios of prevention campaigns 4 and by more violent reactions towards girls who engage in sexting, no gender difference was found in terms of sending one's own sexually related image.…”

The Relationship between Dark Triad Personality Traits and Sexting Behaviors among Adolescents and Young Adults across 11 Countries

“…Sexting is a sexual communication characterized by the sending or receiving of sexts, that is text messages, photos and/or videos with sexually explicit or provocative content, via technological devices. Although sexting occurs at all ages, it is especially prevalent among adolescents and young adults [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ].…”

Unsolicited Pics and Sexual Scripts: Gender and Relationship Context of Compliant and Non-consensual Technology-Mediated Sexual Interactions

“…It is possible that a misinterpretation of our question could partly explain our results related to gender differences in non-consensual sending and receiving of TMSIs. However, researchers have previously found that there are no differences between men and women in non-consensual sharing of TMSIs (Garcia et al, 2016 ; Madigan et al, 2018 ; Molla-Esparza et al, 2020 ). We also did not find gender differences in the prevalence of non-consensual sharing of TMSIs.…”