A qualitative meta-synthesis of young peoples' experiences of ‘sexting’

Objective: To conduct a meta-synthesis of the qualitative research to explore young people's experiences and use of smart phones to send and receive sexually focused messages and images. Design: A qualitative meta-synthesis was conducted on the retrieved papers following a systematic search of PUBMED, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), COCHRANE, Embase, Medline and Psycinfo. The sample included five qualitative studies with a total sample size of 480 participants. Results: The meta-synthesis of the papers resulted in the development of four central themes: gender inequity, popularity with peers, relationship context, and costs and benefits. Conclusions: Drawing the qualitative work together highlights the manner in which ‘sexting’ is more nuanced than traditional ‘cyber-bullying’. The consensual sending of intimate images is a highly gendered activity. The gender issues require work with female students to explore the issue of ‘sexting’ and how it can be harmful. Work with male students around the issues of respect and gender harassment in relation to ‘sexting’ is also required and should contribute to sex and relationships education. The results indicate that school nurses working with young people need to build discussions about the use of technology within relationships into their work with young people

Smartphones

Many of the research approaches to smartphones actually regard them as more or less transparent points of access to other kinds of communication experiences. That is, rather than considering the smartphone as something in itself, the researchers look at how individuals use the smartphone for their communicative purposes, whether these be talking, surfing the web, using on-line data access for off-site data sources, downloading or uploading materials, or any kind of interaction with social media. They focus not so much on the smartphone itself but on the activities that people engage in with their smartphones

It Doesn\u27t Seem Like a Big Deal : A Media Ecology Analysis of Digital Teen Sexuality and Sexting Education

In the state of Illinois, any person in possession of sexually explicit photos of a minor, even if the subject is oneself, can be prosecuted as a felon for possession of child pornography and be required to registered as a sex-offender (705 ILCS § 405). Concurrently, the recent trend of ‘send nudes’ depicts humorous ways to request the transmission of sexually explicit photos, increasing this act as a normative practice for young people (Bradford, 2018; Thomas, 2017). This trend is incongruent with Illinois statue (705 ILCS § 405) and school administrative policy about transmitting sexually explicit photos of a minor. The clash of environments – adolescents’ use of digital media and adolescent romantic experiences, education, and state law– raises serious questions about tensions within our shifting digital age, particularly in relation to educational messages about sexting. Therefore, a media ecology approach is employed to explore the environments that compound to education related to adolescent digital interaction via smartphones. This study explores if students learn about sexting in school curriculum, and if so, what are the prevailing messages? A dual method approach triangulates a qualitative analysis of existing curriculum with student interviews. From this thematic analysis, themes emerged related to educational messages about sexting: social consequences, self-responsibility, avoidance, casual approach to education, and students’ desire for greater information about sexting. All of which serve to promote relevant, student-centered sexting curriculum development

Sexting in adolescents: Prevalence and behaviours

Sexting is among the practices used by young people to explore their sexuality. Although an educational response to all facets of this phenomenon is recommended, little research has been published to date in Spain that analyses its prevalence by differentiating between the different types of sexting behaviours: sending, receiving, third-party forwarding, and receiving via an intermediary. This gap in the research is addressed by exploring: 1) Sexting prevalence, differentiating between behaviours; 2) Relationships between sexting behaviours and gender, age, sexual orientation, having a romantic/sexual partner, social networking sites used, and the degree of normalisation and willingness to sext; 3) Gender-based differences. In total, 3,314 adolescents aged 12 to 16 years participated in the study. The most frequent sexting behaviours were identified as receiving and receiving via an intermediary, followed by third-party forwarding and the sending of sexual content. The relative importance of each analysed variable depended on the specific sexting behaviour and the participants’ gender. The results highlight the need to disentangle the diversity behind sexting behaviours and to address each one in an educational setting. This more detailed look at the different behaviours can be used as the basis for raising awareness and decision-making in education

Because I Like It? No, They Made Me Do It!! Why Juveniles Engage In Sexting

Developments in technology have changed the way we do everything; advanced our research capabilities, enhanced our communication abilities and speeds, even the way people commit crimes. It provides perpetrators with a new way to commit traditional crimes as well as new forms of crime. One of the many opportunities involved with increased communication devices is known as sexting. Adolescent sexting has received national and local attention due to possible long-term implications such as registering as a sex offender and even suicide. Sexting, which is considered an antisocial behavior among adolescents, has progressively become implicated in peer pressure as well. Peer pressure causes individuals to commit cruel acts or crimes in which they normally would not do because they are forced, or feel obligated to do so, by their peers. Further study into peer pressure and sexting is needed to discover if peer pressure and opportunity are the reasons why adolescents engage in sexting. To discover this, I surveyed college undergraduate students to determine the causes behind their sexting habits in high school

Implications of Parenting Behaviour and Adolescent Attachment for Understanding Adolescent Sexting

The present study examined the nature and prevalence of adolescent sexting, and its relation to parenting behaviours and adolescents’ attachment, in a sample of Canadian adolescents. Participants were 305 adolescents between 14 and 18 years of age (158 females, 147 males). Adolescents completed a paper-and-pencil questionnaire assessing sexting-related behaviours and experiences, attachment, temperament, and experiences of parental warmth, parental-psychological control, parent-child communication, and parental monitoring. The analyses revealed that, among Canadian adolescents, sending and receiving sexual messages and images was more common among older adolescents. There were no gender differences in rates of sending and receiving sexual messages or images, however, males reported forwarding sexual images, and asking others for sexual messages and sexual images, more frequently than did females. Females reported more frequently being asked to send sexual messages and sexual images. Sending and receiving sexual messages and images were more common among adolescents who were in a romantic relationship, and adolescents most commonly cited a relationship partner, or someone with whom they hoped to begin a relationship, as the individual(s) with whom they had sent and/or received sexual messages and images. Results also revealed that better parentchild communication was predictive of lower frequency of adolescent sending of sexual images, and that higher report of adolescent attachment avoidance was predictive of higher frequency of adolescent sending of sexual images. Although parental warmth and parental psychological control did not directly predict adolescent sending of sexual images, these variables were found to have indirect effects on sending sexual images through attachment avoidance. These findings suggest that parent-child communication has a relatively stronger, more direct relation with adolescent sending of sexual images, but that parental warmth and psychological control may also influence this behaviour through formation of adolescents’ working models of relationships. A thematic analysis of participants’ responses to an open-ended question revealed that most adolescents have had passive involvement in sexting, although many also reported use of sexting for a social purpose (i.e., flirtation) or a negative experience with sexting. These findings help to clarify the social and relational processes that are influential in adolescent sending of sexual images, which provides useful information for the development of public health education programs and directions for future research

Sexting in adolescents: Prevalence and behaviours

Sexting is among the practices used by young people to explore their sexuality. Although an educational response to all facets of this phenomenon is recommended, little research has been published to date in Spain that analyses its prevalence by differentiating between the different types of sexting behaviours: sending, receiving, third-party forwarding, and receiving via an intermediary. This gap in the research is addressed by exploring: 1) Sexting prevalence, differentiating between behaviours; 2) Relationships between sexting behaviours and gender, age, sexual orientation, having a romantic/sexual partner, social networking sites used, and the degree of normalisation and willingness to sext; 3) Gender-based differences. In total, 3,314 adolescents aged 12 to 16 years participated in the study. The most frequent sexting behaviours were identified as receiving and receiving via an intermediary, followed by third-party forwarding and the sending of sexual content. The relative importance of each analysed variable depended on the specific sexting behaviour and the participants’ gender. The results highlight the need to disentangle the diversity behind sexting behaviours and to address each one in an educational setting. This more detailed look at the different behaviours can be used as the basis for raising awareness and decision-making in education

Sexting Prevalence and Socio-Demographic Correlates in Spanish Secondary School Students

Introduction This research analyzes the prevalence of sexting and socio-demographic correlates in a sample of 647 adolescents administered a questionnaire at secondary schools in Valencia (Spain). Methods The questionnaire results indicate that 61% of respondents reported being involved in at least one case of sexting, with 24, 58, and 18% reporting having sent a sext, received a sext, and forwarded a sext, respectively. Results More males and older adolescents reported having received and forwarded sexts than female and younger adolescents. Conclusions Furthermore, time spent using Information and Communications Technology (ICT) devices, use and frequency of use of social media, grade repetition, low academic performance expectations in Math, and a single-parent family situation appear to correlate with an increase in the prevalence of sexting experiences. Policy Implications Our study also provides results that can support new lines of inquiry into analyzing the relationship between sexting and certain socio-demographic, family situation, and educational variables in relation to adolescents

Leaving a Violent Relationship

Intimate partner violence (IPV), defined as physical, sexual, emotional, and economic abuse and controlling behaviors inflicted within intimate partner relationships, is a global crisis that extends beyond national and sociocultural boundaries, affecting people of all ages, religions, ethnicities, and economic backgrounds. Though studies exist that seek to explain how people become trapped within violent relationships and what factors facilitate survival, escape and safety, this book provides fresh insights into this complex and multifaceted issue. People often ask of women in abusive relationships “why does she stay?” Critics suggest that this question carries implicit notions of victim blame and fails to hold to account the perpetrators of abuse. The studies described in this book, however, explore the question from the perspectives of survivors and represent a shift away from individual pathology to an approach based on the recognition of structural oppression, agency and resilience. Comprising eight chapters, new theoretical frameworks for the analysis of IPV are provided to guide practitioners and policy makers in improving services for vulnerable people in abusive relationships, and a range of studies into the experiences of a diverse range of survivors, including mothers in Portugal, women who experienced child marriage in Uganda, and refugees in the United States of America, generate findings which elucidate perspectives from marginalised and under-researched groups