Definition
The sending of self-made sexually explicit text message, photographs, or videos through electronic media.
Introduction
Scholars have defined sexting in a variety of ways, from broad definitions that include the sending of all types of self-made sexually explicit media (Barrense-Dias et al. 2017) to more specific definitions that are limited to sending photos and videos of particular body parts. Studies also differ in the timeframe; respondents were asked to recall (e.g., 6 months vs. a year), and whether the studies were conducted among adolescents or adults. This discrepancy in methodology has resulted in muddling the accuracy of research findings (Barrense-Dias et al. 2017). For example, the prevalence of sexting defined as the sending of both sexually explicit text messages and photographs has ranged from about 1% to 30% for adolescents and as high as 57% for young adults (Klettke et al. (2014).
While sexting can take place through all types of electronic media,...
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References
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Ouytsel, J.V., Walrave, M., Ponnet, K., Temple, J.R. (2018). Sexting. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_218-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_218-1
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