IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i3p1087-d318250.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Adolescent Profiles According to Their Beliefs and Affinity to Sexting. A Cluster Study

Author

Listed:
  • Encarnación Soriano-Ayala

    (Department of Research Methods in Education, University of Almeria, 04120 Almeria, Spain)

  • Verónica C. Cala

    (Department of Research Methods in Education, University of Almeria, 04120 Almeria, Spain)

  • Rachida Dalouh

    (Department of Research Methods in Education, University of Almeria, 04120 Almeria, Spain)

Abstract

Sexting consists of sending, receiving, and distributing images of sexually suggestive content through electronic devices. This practice is one of the new ways of linking sex affectively through virtual environments, especially in adolescence. However, not all young people have the same relationship with the practice of sexting. This study of a sample of 603 Spanish and Moroccan adolescents residing in Andalusia analyzes beliefs towards sexting as part of a virtual sexuality and the perception of those who carry it out, defining profiles of affinity to sexting. The cluster analysis reveals the existence of three predominant profiles: adolescents who show a sexting-philia, perceiving it as a fun, flirty, and daring practice; sexting-phobes, who consider sexting to be characteristic of people, or attitudes, who are desperate, impolite, and conflicting; and a third ambivalent profile of people who appreciate the practice as something fun but conflicting. The majority discourse is one that presents a positive view of this phenomenon. Young people also recognize that sexting has some characteristics of virtual sexuality, such as a loss of privacy and a distance between virtual and real behavior. These findings allow us to deepen our understanding of the new practices of relationships and offer measures for the prevention of the associated risks.

Suggested Citation

  • Encarnación Soriano-Ayala & Verónica C. Cala & Rachida Dalouh, 2020. "Adolescent Profiles According to Their Beliefs and Affinity to Sexting. A Cluster Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-11, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:3:p:1087-:d:318250
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/3/1087/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/3/1087/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. José van Dijck & Thomas Poell, 2013. "Understanding Social Media Logic," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 1(1), pages 2-14.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Isabel Cuadrado-Gordillo & Guadalupe Martín-Mora-Parra & Ismael Puig-Amores, 2022. "Analysis of Representations of the Aid That Public Psychological Support Points Provide to Adolescent Female Victims of Gender-Based Violence: Reformulation of Policies and Practices," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-21, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mariek Vanden Abeele & Ralf De Wolf & Rich Ling, 2018. "Mobile Media and Social Space: How Anytime, Anyplace Connectivity Structures Everyday Life," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(2), pages 5-14.
    2. Luis-Millán González & José Devís-Devís & Maite Pellicer-Chenoll & Miquel Pans & Alberto Pardo-Ibañez & Xavier García-Massó & Fernanda Peset & Fernanda Garzón-Farinós & Víctor Pérez-Samaniego, 2021. "The Impact of COVID-19 on Sport in Twitter: A Quantitative and Qualitative Content Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-20, April.
    3. Estela Marine-Roig & Eva Martin-Fuentes & Natalia Daries-Ramon, 2017. "User-Generated Social Media Events in Tourism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-23, December.
    4. Martin Echeverría, 2023. "Experiencing Political Advertising Through Social Media Logic: A Qualitative Inquiry," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 11(2), pages 127-136.
    5. Celina Navarro & Gemma Gómez-Bernal, 2022. "The Use of Social Media by Spanish Feminist Organizations: Collectivity From Individualism," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 10(2), pages 93-103.
    6. Dolata, Ulrich, 2017. "Social movements and the Internet: The sociotechnical constitution of collective action," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2017-02, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    7. Kenneth L. Hacker & Vanessa R. Mendez, 2016. "Toward a Model of Strategic Influence, International Broadcasting, and Global Engagement," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(2), pages 69-91.
    8. Kenneth L. Hacker & Vanessa R. Mendez, 2016. "Toward a Model of Strategic Influence, International Broadcasting, and Global Engagement," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(2), pages 69-91.
    9. Jacob Groshek & Sarah Krongard, 2016. "Netflix and Engage? Implications for Streaming Television on Political Participation during the 2016 US Presidential Campaign," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 5(4), pages 1-18, October.
    10. Jansson, André, 2018. "Rethinking post-tourism in the age of social media," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 101-110.
    11. Rukhsana Aslam, 2016. "Building Peace through Journalism in the Social/Alternate Media," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(1), pages 63-79.
    12. Rukhsana Aslam, 2016. "Building Peace through Journalism in the Social/Alternate Media," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(1), pages 63-79.
    13. Kaisu Koivumäki & Timo Koivumäki & Erkki Karvonen, 2020. "“On Social Media Science Seems to Be More Human”: Exploring Researchers as Digital Science Communicators," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(2), pages 425-439.
    14. Daniele Battista, 2023. "Winning against All Odds: Elly Schlein’s Successful Election Campaign and Instagram Communication Strategies," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-13, May.
    15. Rodrigo Quintas da Silva, 2018. "A Portuguese exception to right-wing populism," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 4(1), pages 1-5, December.
    16. Francois Schalkwyk & Jonathan Dudek & Rodrigo Costas, 2020. "Communities of shared interests and cognitive bridges: the case of the anti-vaccination movement on Twitter," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(2), pages 1499-1516, November.
    17. Sofia P. Caldeira, 2021. "“It’s Not Just Instagram Models”: Exploring the Gendered Political Potential of Young Women’s Instagram Use," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(2), pages 5-15.
    18. Reimer, Thomas, 2023. "Environmental factors to maximize social media engagement: A comprehensive framework," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    19. Janika Saretzki & Jürgen Pretsch & Günther Joanneum Obertaxer, 2022. "Security that Matters: General Knowledge and Correlations in the Context of Applied Satellite Navigation, Specific Interference-Events and the Use of the GNSS-Technology," European Journal of Social Sciences Articles, Revistia Research and Publishing, vol. 5, ejss_v5_i.
    20. Miriam Steiner, 2020. "Soft Presentation of Hard News? A Content Analysis of Political Facebook Posts," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(3), pages 244-257.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:3:p:1087-:d:318250. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.