Received Sexts, Pressure to Engage in Sexual Behavior, and Adjustment Problems in Adolescence

• In Event: Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Topic - Technology, Media & Child Development

Abstract

Sexting is defined as sending or receiving sexually explicit content via text-message (Barrense-Dias et al., 2017). This behavior may be a normative way for adolescents to explore their sexuality (Lippman & Campbell, 2014), but may also pose risks for adolescents’ psychosocial health (Mori et al., 2019). Associations between digital technology and poorer adjustment may be limited to the between-person level (Dienlin & Johannes, 2020); thus, associations with sexting may vary depending on if an adolescent receives greater amounts of sexts than their peers (between-person) or a greater amount than is typical for them (within-person). Receiving high amounts of sexts may signal unwanted sexual contact or pressure to engage in sexual behavior (Krieger, 2017; Walker et al., 2013); this pressure may account for why sexting relates to poor adjustment. In late adolescent girls, felt pressure to engage in sexual behaviors has been found to predict sending and being asked for a naked image, as well as receiving a naked image without permission (Choi et al., 2016). The present study investigated receiving sexts, felt pressure to engage in sexual behavior, and adjustment problems in adolescents. It was hypothesized that felt pressure to engage in sexual behavior would mediate the relation between receiving sexts and internalizing, externalizing, and social problems.
An ethnically diverse sample of 197 adolescents (48% female, Mage= 14.93) was provided smartphones programmed to capture all their incoming and outgoing text messages throughout high school. Two, two-day-long transcripts from each academic year were selected to be coded for content; these codes included sexting, defined as talk about sexual behaviors (κ’s>.69). The current study only examined received sexting. Each year, participants completed the Youth Self-Report (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001) which measured their psychosocial adjustment (social, internalizing, and externalizing problems), and a single item assessing to what extent they had felt pressure to engage in sexual behaviors. The current study utilized data from 10th through 12th grade.
Descriptive statistics and correlations are presented in Table 1, which suggest modest relations among received sexts, adjustment problems, and felt pressure to engage in sexual behaviors. Mediated multilevel models were used to investigate these relations further, including a random intercept for participant to account for non-independence. To understand whether the effect of sexting on adjustment and pressure operates between or within individuals, two received sexting variables were calculated: a deviation at each time point from the individual’s own average (within-person) and an overall deviation from the group average (between-person). There were significant between-person associations: receiving more sexts than others is related to felt pressure to engage in sexual behaviors and to each of the three adjustment problems (p’s<.04; Table 2); no within-person associations emerged. No evidence indicated that felt pressure to engage in sexual behavior mediates the relation between received sexts and adjustment problems (p’s>.53). These results suggest that although receiving sexts may be directly related to both felt pressure to engage in sexual behaviors and adjustment, the effect of receiving sexts on adjustment may not operate through felt pressure to engage in sexual behaviors.

Authors

• Allycen Kurup, Purdue University, West Lafayette
  Presenting Author

• Kaitlyn Burnell, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author

• Marion K. Underwood, Purdue University, West Lafayette
  Non-Presenting Author