Parent-child communication about internet use and acceptance of parental authority

Structural equation modeling is applied to investigate how parents' communication with their child about his or her Internet use is linked to the child's acceptance of parental authority in the context of Internet use, and how this in turn is linked to the child's social media behavior. This study surveyed children aged 13 to 18 and their mothers and fathers (N = 357 families) and found that acceptance of parental authority is a key factor in the effectiveness of parental mediation. It is recommended that parental mediation is studied as a dynamic process shaped by both parents and children

Adolescents’ perceptions of digital media’s potential to elicit jealousy, conflict and monitoring behaviors within romantic relationships

Understanding the role of digital media in adolescents’ romantic relationships is essential to the prevention of digital dating violence. This study focuses on adolescents’ perceptions of the impact of digital media on jealousy, conflict, and control within their romantic relationships. Twelve focus group interviews were conducted, among 55 secondary school students (ngirls = 28; 51% girls) between the ages of 15 and 18 years (Mage = 16.60 years; SD age = 1.21), in the Dutch-speaking community of Belgium. The respondents identified several sources of jealousy within their romantic relationships, such as online pictures of the romantic partner with others and online messaging with others. Adolescents identified several ways in which romantic partners would react when experiencing feelings of jealousy, such as contacting the person they saw as a threat or looking up the other person’s social media profiles. Along with feelings of jealousy, respondents described several monitoring behaviors, such as reading each other’s e-mails or accessing each other’s social media accounts. Adolescents also articulated several ways that they curated their social media to avoid conflict and jealousy within their romantic relationships. For instance, they adapted their social media behavior by avoiding the posting of certain pictures, or by ceasing to comment on certain content of others. The discussion section includes suggestions for future research and implications for practice, such as the need to incorporate information about e-safety into sexual and relational education and the need to have discussions with adolescents, about healthy boundaries for communication within their friendships and romantic relationships.</jats:p

Sexting within young adults’ dating and romantic relationships

Sexting, herein defined as the sending of self-made sexually explicit images, is a modern-day form of sexual communication. This review discusses recent findings in sexting research among (young) adults. We find that despite its risks, sexting is increasingly used within dating and romantic relationships and can carry different meanings depending on the context in which the images are exchanged. Risks associated with sexting include pressure, experiences of unwanted sexting, unauthorized distribution, and coercion. Problematic forms of sexting can have significant consequences on the victims. We suggest the need for future research to make use of a uniform and nuanced measure of sexting and underscore the need to focus on adolescents as well as adults of all ages

Adolescents’ sexy self-presentation on Instagram : an investigation of their posting behavior using a prototype willingness model perspective

Some adolescents use social media platforms, such as Instagram, for sexualized self-presentation, which includes posting images in which someone is scarcely dressed, has a sexy gaze or in which sexual willingness is suggested. These behaviors could be a first step towards sexting. Given that adolescents are highly influenced by peer perceptions, this study uses the prototype willingness model to assess how teenagers’ perceptions of others could influence their posting behaviors. The study was conducted among 2626 students (n = 1530; 58.4% girls) between the ages of 14 and 21 (M = 16.14; SD = 1.02) in 10 secondary schools in the Dutch-speaking community in Belgium. The results show that older adolescents and girls were more likely to post images of themselves on Instagram. The models showed that peer norms and willingness and attitudes were significantly associated with posting intention. The perceived norms of adolescents’ parents were not significantly related to the behaviors. There were also significant associations between perceived similarity, prototype favorability and the willingness to engage in sexualized self-presentation on Instagram. The implications for education and practice are discussed

Concise report : teenage sexting on the rise? Results of a cohort study using a weighted sample of adolescents

Background: The vast differences in sampling techniques, cultural contexts between international studies, the differences in age groups of the samples and various definitions used to measure sexting make it hard to compare how sexting behaviour has evolved over the past years. This exploratory study aims to address this critical gap in the research by using two datasets of a biennial study on adolescents' media use. The first aim of this study is to compare the sexting prevalence and correlates (i.e. age, gender and smartphone ownership) of youth in 2015 and 2017. The second aim is to investigate the risk mitigation behaviours of youth who engage in sexting and to assess how their behaviours differ between the two time points. Methods: The data for cohort 1 were collected in October and November 2015 and comprise of 2663 students from 11 secondary schools in the Dutch-speaking community of Belgium. For the second cohort, the data were collected in October and November 2017 and comprise of 2681 students from 10 secondary schools. A weighing factor was implemented on the dataset. Results: The results show sexting behaviour has significantly increased between cohorts, with 8.3% of the respondents having sent a sext in the first cohort, compared with 12.1% in the second cohort. The sexting prevalence rates also significantly increased between cohorts when taking into account students who owned a smartphone. Furthermore, engagement in sexting was associated with being older, and no gender differences were found. In the second cohort, 36.8% of youth who had sent a sext were identifiable in those images. There were no differences between cohorts. Conclusion: The results indicate that other factors next to smartphone ownership may be associated with an increase in sexting prevalence. The findings also highlight the need for the development of age-appropriate sexting educational materials