Sexting, Substance Use, and Sexual Risk Behavior in Young Adults

Abstract

Purpose Cell phone use has become more widespread over the past decade. Young adults are frequently early adopters of new technologies, including cell phones. Most prior research examining sexting, the act of sending sexually explicit or suggestive images via text message, has focused on the legal or social consequences of this behavior. The current study focused on the public health implications of sexting by examining associations between sexting, substance use, and sexual risk behavior in youth. Methods Young adults (N=763) completed online questionnaires assessing demographics, cell phone use (e.g., texting, sexting), substance use, and sexual risk behaviors. Results Sexting was reported by a substantial minority of participants (44%). Compared to their non-sexting counterparts, participants who engaged in sexting were more likely to report recent substance use and high-risk sexual behaviors, including unprotected sex and sex with multiple partners. Of those who engaged in sexting, a considerable percentage (31.8%) reported having sex with a new partner for the first time after sexting with that person. In multivariate analyses, sexting was associated with high-risk sexual behavior after accounting for demographic factors, total texting behaviors, and substance use. Conclusions Results suggest that sexting is robustly associated with high-risk sexual behavior. Many individuals exchange explicit or provocative photos with long-term sexual partners, but at least some participants in this study were incurring new sexual risks subsequent to sexting. Additional research is needed to understand the contexts in which sexting occurs, motivations for sexting, and relationship of sexting to risk behavior.

Sexting and risky sexual behaviours among undergraduate students in Botswana: An exploratory study

“…This result is supported by the study of Currin et al (2016) where condomless sex was also not associated with sexting behaviors. However, the result was in contrast to findings by Benotsch et al (2013) and Crimmins & Seigfried-Spellar (2014) which had confirmed a relationship between sexting and unprotected sex. More in-depth research is required to explore whether and how sexting leads to unprotected sex or vice versa.…”

“…An increase in the frequency of sexting was associated with an increase in the number of sexual partners. This is similar to findings by Benotsch et al (2013). Multiple sexual partners make young people probably more likely to receive and send sexts more often than having only one or no sexual partner.…”

“…Delevi and Weisskirch (2013) found that extrovert participants were more likely to send sext messages and participants scoring at neuroticism and low agreeableness were more likely to send sexually suggestive photographs. In some studies, age and gender made no difference in sexting (Benotsch, Snipes, Martin, & Bull, 2013;Drouin & Landgraff, 2012;Henderson & Morgan, 2011;Samimi & Alderson, 2014;Weisskirch & Delevi, 2011), while in other studies males were more likely to receive sexts (Gordon-Messer, Bauermeister, Grodzinski, & Zimmerman, 2013) or to send sexts (Delevi & Weisskirch, 2013;Hudson et al, 2014;Silva, Teixeira, Vasconcelos-Raposo, & Bessa 2016) than females. One of the conclusive findings is that young people who engage in sexting were more likely to be sexually active (i.e., engaging in vaginal, anal, or oral sex) than those who were not sexting (Klettke et al, 2014).…”

“…One of the conclusive findings is that young people who engage in sexting were more likely to be sexually active (i.e., engaging in vaginal, anal, or oral sex) than those who were not sexting (Klettke et al, 2014). Studies of the relationship between sexting and risky sexual behaviours have found that sexting was associated with condomless sex (Benotsch et al, 2013;Crimmins & Seigfried-Spellar, 2014;Ferguson, 2011), multiple sexual partners (Benotsch et al, 2013, Dake, Price, Mazriaz, & Ward, 2012Dir, Cyders, & Coskunpinar, 2013), and the use of alcohol and illicit drugs (Benotsch et al, 2013;Dake et al, 2012), which may increase the likelihood of risky sexual behaviours. Some studies, however, did not find a relationship between sexting and sexually risky behaviours (Currin et al, 2016;Gordon-Messer et al, 2013).…”

Mudanças em comportamentos relacionados à saúde e indicadores metabólicos em universitários entre 2011 e 2014

“…O consumo de bebidas alcoólicas em estudantes universitários é uma das variáveis mais estudadas nesta população, visto que, além de problemas relacionados a ocorrência de doenças, este comportamento está associado a diversos outros riscos, como prática sexual não segura e direção imprudente 19 . No presente estudo, houve aumento do consumo entre os homens e o tempo de exposição ao ambiente da graduação explicou a variância em 13,0% e 14,0% (consumo excessivo) do consumo de bebidas alcoólicas.…”