IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i8p4226-d537414.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Adolescent Internet Addiction on Sexual Online Victimization: The Mediating Effects of Sexting and Body Self-Esteem

Author

Listed:
  • Alicia Tamarit

    (Department of Personality, Assessment and Psychological Treatment, Faculty of Psychology, University of Valencia, 46022 Valencia, Spain)

  • Konstanze Schoeps

    (Department of Personality, Assessment and Psychological Treatment, Faculty of Psychology, University of Valencia, 46022 Valencia, Spain)

  • Montserrat Peris-Hernández

    (Department of Personality, Evaluation and Psychological Treatments of the University of the Basque Country, 48940 Leioa, Spain)

  • Inmaculada Montoya-Castilla

    (Department of Personality, Assessment and Psychological Treatment, Faculty of Psychology, University of Valencia, 46022 Valencia, Spain)

Abstract

Adolescents’ problematic use of the internet and the risk of sexual online victimization are an increasing concern among families, researchers, professionals and society. This study aimed to analyze the interplay between adolescents’ addiction to social networks and internet, body self-esteem and sexual–erotic risk behavior online: sexting, sextortion and grooming. While sexting refers to the voluntary engagement in texting sexual–erotic messages, sextortion and grooming are means of sexual–erotic victimization through the use of the internet. Participants were 1763 adolescents (51% girls), aged 12 to 16 years ( M = 14.56; SD = 1.16), from public ( n = 1068; 60.60%) and private ( n = 695; 39.40%) high schools in the Basque Country (Spain). We carried out structural equation modeling (SEM) using Mplus to assess the mediating effects of body self-esteem in the relationship between addiction to social media and internet and sexual–erotic risk behavior. The results showed that internet addiction predicts online sexual victimization; specifically, the best predictors of sexting, sextortion and grooming victimization were symptoms of internet addiction and geek behavior. Body self-esteem and sexting mediated the relationship between internet addiction and sexual online victimization in adolescents. These results highlight the importance of attending to adolescents’ mental health regarding their online behavior, considering the risk and protective factors involved, due to its close association with online sexual victimization.

Suggested Citation

  • Alicia Tamarit & Konstanze Schoeps & Montserrat Peris-Hernández & Inmaculada Montoya-Castilla, 2021. "The Impact of Adolescent Internet Addiction on Sexual Online Victimization: The Mediating Effects of Sexting and Body Self-Esteem," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-17, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:8:p:4226-:d:537414
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/8/4226/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/8/4226/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aina M. Gassó & Bianca Klettke & José R. Agustina & Irene Montiel, 2019. "Sexting, Mental Health, and Victimization Among Adolescents: A Literature Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-14, July.
    2. Daria J. Kuss & Mark D. Griffiths, 2017. "Social Networking Sites and Addiction: Ten Lessons Learned," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-17, March.
    3. Montserrat Peris & Usue de la Barrera & Konstanze Schoeps & Inmaculada Montoya-Castilla, 2020. "Psychological Risk Factors that Predict Social Networking and Internet Addiction in Adolescents," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-23, June.
    4. Usue de la Barrera & Konstanze Schoeps & José-Antonio Gil-Gómez & Inmaculada Montoya-Castilla, 2019. "Predicting Adolescent Adjustment and Well-Being: The Interplay between Socio-Emotional and Personal Factors," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-17, November.
    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. Catarina Almeida, Telma & Barreiros, Inês, 2024. "Online grooming among Portuguese adolescents and the COVID-19 lockdown: Relationship with other types of victimization," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    2. Alessandra Ragona & Martina Mesce & Silvia Cimino & Luca Cerniglia, 2023. "Motivations, Behaviors and Expectancies of Sexting: The Role of Defensive Strategies and Social Media Addiction in a Sample of Adolescents," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-14, January.

    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. Montserrat Peris & Usue de la Barrera & Konstanze Schoeps & Inmaculada Montoya-Castilla, 2020. "Psychological Risk Factors that Predict Social Networking and Internet Addiction in Adolescents," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-23, June.
    2. Steven S. Chan & Michelle Van Solt & Ryan E. Cruz & Matthew Philp & Shalini Bahl & Nuket Serin & Nelson Borges Amaral & Robert Schindler & Abbey Bartosiak & Smriti Kumar & Murad Canbulut, 2022. "Social media and mindfulness: From the fear of missing out (FOMO) to the joy of missing out (JOMO)," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(3), pages 1312-1331, September.
    3. Majid Altuwairiqi & Nan Jiang & Raian Ali, 2019. "Problematic Attachment to Social Media: Five Behavioural Archetypes," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(12), pages 1-36, June.
    4. Sarah Helene Aarestad & Tine Almenning Flaa & Mark D. Griffiths & Ståle Pallesen, 2023. "Smartphone Addiction and Subjective Withdrawal Effects: A Three-Day Experimental Study," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.
    5. Min-Jung Kwak & Hyun Cho & Dai-Jin Kim, 2022. "The Role of Motivation Systems, Anxiety, and Low Self-Control in Smartphone Addiction among Smartphone-Based Social Networking Service (SNS) Users," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-16, June.
    6. Zhou, Fei & Lin, Youhai & Mou, Jian & Cohen, Jason & Chen, Sihua, 2023. "Understanding the dark side of gamified interactions on short-form video platforms: Through a lens of expectations violations theory," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 186(PB).
    7. Alessandro Costantini & Cristina Semeraro & Pasquale Musso & Rosalinda Cassibba & Gabrielle Coppola, 2022. "The Role of Parenting, Dysregulation and Self-Esteem in Adolescents’ Problematic Social Network Site Use: A Test of Parallel and Serial Mediation Models in a Healthy Community Sample," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-14, October.
    8. Olatz Lopez-Fernandez, 2018. "Generalised Versus Specific Internet Use-Related Addiction Problems: A Mixed Methods Study on Internet, Gaming, and Social Networking Behaviours," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-33, December.
    9. Honglei Mu & Qiaojie Jiang & Jiang Xu & Sijing Chen, 2022. "Drivers and Consequences of Short-Form Video (SFV) Addiction amongst Adolescents in China: Stress-Coping Theory Perspective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-18, October.
    10. Jingjing Li & Chengfu Yu & Shuangju Zhen & Wei Zhang, 2021. "Parent-Adolescent Communication, School Engagement, and Internet Addiction among Chinese Adolescents: The Moderating Effect of Rejection Sensitivity," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-12, March.
    11. Sari Castrén & Terhi Mustonen & Krista Hylkilä & Niko Männikkö & Maria Kääriäinen & Kirsimarja Raitasalo, 2022. "Risk Factors for Excessive Social Media Use Differ from Those of Gambling and Gaming in Finnish Youth," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(4), pages 1-12, February.
    12. Hadi Nobari & Mohamad Fashi & Arezoo Eskandari & Santos Villafaina & Álvaro Murillo-Garcia & Jorge Pérez-Gómez, 2021. "Effect of COVID-19 on Health-Related Quality of Life in Adolescents and Children: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-12, April.
    13. Aina M. Gassó & Katrin Mueller-Johnson & Irene Montiel, 2020. "Sexting, Online Sexual Victimization, and Psychopathology Correlates by Sex: Depression, Anxiety, and Global Psychopathology," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-18, February.
    14. Caterina Primi & Giulia Fioravanti & Silvia Casale & Maria Anna Donati, 2021. "Measuring Problematic Facebook Use among Adolescents and Young Adults with the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale: A Psychometric Analysis by Applying Item Response Theory," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-15, March.
    15. Lisa Mader & Kai W. Müller & Klaus Wölfling & Manfred E. Beutel & Lara Scherer, 2023. "Is (Disordered) Social Networking Sites Usage a Risk Factor for Dysfunctional Eating and Exercise Behavior?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-11, February.
    16. Núria Aragay & Vicenç Vallès & Irene Ramos-Grille & Gemma Garrido & Enric Gamundi Grimalt & Elena Miranda Ruiz & Esther Jovell-Fernández, 2023. "Differences in Screen Addiction in the Past 15 Years," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(1), pages 1-10, December.
    17. Sebastian Wachs & Michelle F. Wright & Manuel Gámez-Guadix & Nicola Döring, 2021. "How Are Consensual, Non-Consensual, and Pressured Sexting Linked to Depression and Self-Harm? The Moderating Effects of Demographic Variables," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-16, March.
    18. Samir Muhazzab Amin & Khairunnisa Mohd Nizam & Siti Shazwani Ahmad Suhaimi & Nur Shuhamin Nazuri, 2024. "Analyzing the Influence of Excessive Digital Technologies Usage towards Emotional Intelligence Development of Undergraduate IPTA Students in Klang Valley, Selangor," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 8(8), pages 4541-4557, August.
    19. Sulasula, Josephine, 2023. "Effects of social media addiction on daily work performance of government employees," MPRA Paper 117995, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Cristian Molla Esparza & Pablo Nájera & Emelina López-González & Josep-Maria Losilla, 2020. "Development and Validation of the Adolescent Sexting Scale (A-SextS) with a Spanish Sample," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-22, October.

    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:18:y:2021:i:8:p:4226-:d:537414. 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.