Sexting, Mental Health, and Victimization Among Adolescents: A Literature Review.

Aina M Gassó, Bianca Klettke, José R Agustina, Irene Montiel
Author Information
  1. Aina M Gassó: Faculty of Law, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, 08017 Barcelona, Spain. ainagasso@uic.es.
  2. Bianca Klettke: School of Psychology, Deakin University, Victoria 3125, Australia.
  3. José R Agustina: Faculty of Law, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, 08017 Barcelona, Spain.
  4. Irene Montiel: Faculty of Law, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, 08017 Barcelona, Spain.

Abstract

The practice of creating and sharing sexual images via technological devices, known as sexting, has received crescent attention in the past years, especially due to the increase of adolescent engagement in this behavior. Although consensual sexting is not prima facie a crime, as some research has shown, it has the potential to be a risky behavior, and a threshold to get exposure to dangerous kinds of victimization as sextortion, online grooming or cyberbullying. In this context, teenagers represent a vulnerable group due to their limited ability of self-regulation, their high susceptibility to peer pressure, their technophilia, and their growing sexual curiosity. The present paper aims to review the scientific literature to analyze the relationship between mental health and sexting as a potentially risky behavior and its association with online victimization. The results and implications will be discussed.

Keywords

References

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MeSH Term

Adolescent
Adolescent Behavior
Crime Victims
Cyberbullying
Humans
Mental Health
Sexual Behavior
Text Messaging

Word Cloud

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