* Address correspondence to: Parti, Katalin, Assistant Professor, (ude.tv@itrapk), Department of Sociology, Virginia Tech; 225 Stanger St (0137), Blacksburg, VA 24061.
Received 2022 Feb 25; Revised 2022 Aug 2; Accepted 2022 Sep 15.Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Journal of School Health published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American School Health Association.
This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The data is available upon request.
Sexting is sending, receiving, or forwarding sexually explicit messages, images, or videos through electronic means. Research has examined sexting in high school and college students. This study seeks to add to the existing literature by exploring the nature of pressured or problematic sexting in middle school‐aged subjects.
We asked participants in public colleges in Massachusetts, Colorado, and Virginia, to recall their sexting‐related experiences in middle and high school. We utilized an online survey tool for data collection. We performed bivariate quantitative statistical analyses to examine attitudinal and behavioral differences, as well as motivations and consequences of adolescent sexting.
The study revealed unique patterns of early‐onset sexting compared to sexting in later adolescence. Early‐onset adolescents typically start sexting before they become sexually active and are at a higher risk for poor outcomes associated with sexting, they are more likely to seek therapy. Early sexting is significantly more pressured than sexting in later adolescence.
The study is an important contribution to the existing research on pressured sexting. Exploring pressured sexting at very early ages finds that early sexting activity is more likely pressured, creates more stress than later in life, and hence, it needs attention from school mental health professionals and education programs. The authors suggest that comprehensive sex education, including sexting should begin earlier than middle school to prevent risky online sexual behavior and provide for learning coping mechanisms for adolescents.
Keywords: sexting, pressure, early‐onset, adolescent, middle school, high schoolSexting, defined as the sending, receiving, or forwarding sexually explicit messages, images, or videos through electronic means, has become an increasingly prevalent behavior among adolescents. 1 Several international studies have demonstrated the wide prevalence of sexting behavior among adolescents and young adults, suggesting that the phenomenon has been steadily increasing in recent years. 2 , 3 , 4 These studies have examined sexting in high school students. However, other researchers have noted that sexting among middle school students seems to be associated with worse outcomes. For example, in 2014, Rice et al's 5 study of 1285 middle school students found that 5% had sent a sext and that sexting was associated with engaging in a wide range of sexual activities in early teens in correlation with high rates of sexually transmitted infections and teen pregnancies. 5 Another study echoed those findings. 6 A longitudinal study found that sexting among young adolescents was associated with poorer mental health outcomes. 7
Age groups differences in sexting
According to researchers, sexting is more common among high school students than middle school students, and asking another person to send nudes or semi‐nudes is more common among boys than girls. 8 Older adolescents have received and forwarded more sexts than younger ones, 9 , 10 with no significant gender differences. In a meta‐analysis of 39 studies, Madigan and colleagues 11 found that the prevalence of sexting increases with the age of participants (higher in sexually active cohorts than sexually inactive ones), year of data collection (prevalence of sexting increased over time in different cohorts), and sexting method (higher prevalence on mobile devices compared with computers). Consequently, as adolescents get access to smartphones at earlier ages, the onset of sexting behavior is expected to shift to earlier ages as well.
Sexting has been described as a natural consequence of and part of the process of sexual maturation. 12 Therefore, why seek to reduce sexting? Although sexting can be a harmless sign of sexual maturation, it is potentially risky behavior and a gateway to the victimization of sextortion (the threatened dissemination of explicit, intimate, or embarrassing images of a sexual nature without consent, for the purpose of procuring additional images, sexual acts, money, or something else), 13 online grooming, or cyberbullying. 14 Teenagers represent a vulnerable group due to their limited self‐regulation, high susceptibility to peer pressure, and technophilia (defined as enthusiasm or obsession toward advanced technologies). 15 Studies find various predictors for an increased likelihood of non‐consensual dissemination of sexting: being sexually active is a primary predictor. 16 , 17 Further predictors (motivations to sext) are the normalization of sexting 18 and stronger positive attitudes toward disseminating sexts as being funny. 16 , 17 A high level of impulsivity and being male are further predictors of engaging in sexting behaviors. 17
Problematic sextingSince research in sexting started in 2009, 19 most studies have investigated why people engage in sexting. However, fewer studies have concentrated on problematic sexting behavior and its consequences. In one study, Van Ouytsel et al's 20 adolescent (15 to 18‐year‐old) focus group participants mentioned 3 main ways in which sexting images could be abused: (1) they could be used to coerce or blackmail the victim, (2) they could be distributed out of revenge after the breakup of a romantic relationship, or (3) they could be forwarded or shown to peers in order to boast about having received the digital image. All forms of image abuse could be problematic.
Gender differences in sexting and pressured sexting
Generally, more males and older adolescents receive or forward sexts, compared to females and younger adolescents. 9 In a study about sexting in dating relationships of adolescents, Reed et al 21 found that, although both girls and boys reported sexting behaviors, girls were more likely to report receiving pressure to sext and negative emotional responses to sending requests from a dating partner. Sexting in dating relationships involved different emotions for girls and boys. For girls, being older, among other factors, predicted more positive emotional reactions to sexting requests from a partner. In contrast, being younger predicted more negative emotional reactions for girls to sexting requests.
Women generally feel more pressured and threatened than men to sext. 20 , 22 In subsequent studies about adolescents' perceptions of sexting, Van Ouytsel and colleagues 20 , 23 found that girls feel more pressured to share intimate images in teen relationships due to fear of losing their boyfriends. Young adult women experienced more pressure to engage in sexting than young men. Pressure can manifest in many forms, such as asking for photos repeatedly, and women feel more pressured to respond to preserve their relationships. 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 Ross et al 28 examined sexting coercion as part of intimate partner abuse and found that women were more likely than men to be coerced into sexting. Both sexting coercion and sexual coercion were significantly and independently related to negative mental health symptoms and sexual problems; sexting coercion was found to be a cumulative risk factor for nearly all of these adverse effects.
Consequences of non‐consensual sexting
Mitchell et al 29 revealed that 21% of teens appearing in or creating sexually explicit images and 25% of teens who received such images were feeling very or extremely upset, embarrassed, or afraid as a result. In Livingstone and Görzig's 30 research, 24% of European 11 to 16‐year‐olds who reported they received sexually explicit images said that the image made them uncomfortable, upset, or feel they should not have seen it. Younger, female, and less sensation‐seeking participants and those with pre‐existing psychological difficulties were more likely to experience such harm.
Studies identified associations between sexting and adverse psychosocial outcomes such as anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. 14 , 31 , 32 However, Van Ouytsel et al 23 warned that context matters and associated only coerced or pressured sexting, with negative psychosocial outcomes. 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 For example, in a recent study on German 13 to 16‐year‐old adolescents, Wachs et al 37 reported that non‐consensual and pressured sexting were positively related to depressive symptoms and non‐suicidal self‐harm, whereas consensual sexting was unrelated to these outcomes. Furthermore, the study revealed that boys engaged in more non‐consensual sexting than girls, whereas girls were more pressured to send sexts than boys. As per the negative consequences, girls, non‐minority adolescents, and non‐sexual minority adolescents experienced greater depressive symptoms and non‐suicidal self‐harm when they felt pressure to sext. 37
The above literature suggests that sexting in middle school may be an inherently high‐risk activity, but many questions remain unanswered. Van Ouytsel's review of adolescent sexting pointed out that more research is needed on young teens to identify risky behaviors. 24 For example, while it seems clear that not all sexters experience negative outcomes, but it is less clear which types of young teens are at highest risk. 19 Therefore, this study seeks to add to the existing literature by exploring the nature of pressured or problematic sexting compared in early (middle school) and late adolescence (high school). Therefore, we examine the attitudes toward sexting and possible undesired or negative consequences of pressured sexting at early ages on a sample of 999, 18 to 23 years old adolescents with a retrospective cross‐sectional survey design. Furthermore, although the prevalence and patterns of deliberate and pressured sexting in adolescents have been researched, differences between early‐onset (middle school) and late adolescence (high school) sexting have not been comparatively studied in one sample. Most studies specifically examining peer pressure as a motivation to sext have been conducted on high school samples. 38 , 39 , 40 Developmentally speaking, it is reasonable to assume that pressure and sexting may be dynamically different between, for example, 13‐ and 16‐year‐olds. Therefore, this paper intends to address this void by investigating patterns and possible negative consequences of early‐onset pressured sexting (ie, pressured or coerced sexting performed in middle school), in comparison to pressured or coerced sexting starting in high school. Furthermore, we hypothesize that early‐onset sexting behavior is significantly more coerced or pressured than sexting in later adolescence (in high school) since later adolescence sexting is mainly related to intimate relationships. Therefore, this exploratory study operates with 3 research questions:
RQ1: What are the patterns of early sexting compared to sexting in later adolescence?
RQ2: Is early sexting (in middle school) more pressured than later sexting (in high school)?
RQ3: Are early‐onset sexters (those who sexted first in middle school) at a higher risk of poor outcomes than later adolescent sexters (who sexted first in high school) when sexting?
We recruited survey participants from 3 large public universities in the United States: Bridgewater State University (MA), Metropolitan State University of Denver (CO), and Virginia Tech (VA) during the academic year of 2020/2021. Undergraduate students were eligible to participate in the 1‐time online survey, either for course credit or for entering a drawing for a gift card. Participation was voluntary and confidential. For those who were offered course credits, an alternative assignment was provided to ensure voluntariness. The research was approved by all 3 participating universities' Institutional Review Boards, ensuring voluntariness and anonymity.
Altogether, 1066 students participated in the survey, 494 from Virginia, 327 from Colorado, and 245 from Massachusetts in a cross‐sectional survey design. Participation rate reflects the size of the colleges, Virginia Tech having the most undergrad students (30,016; 1.7% participation of the undergraduate student body), followed by the Metropolitan State University of Denver (19,194; 1.7% participation) and Bridgewater State University (9463; 2.6% participation). 41 Because we wanted to concentrate on undergraduate college students born between 2000 and 2003, we excluded those younger than 18 and older than 23 years of age (n = 67) at the time of the survey participation. (Although students older than 23 still merit study, we focused on participants who could still easily recall relatively recent sexting experiences.) As a result, the sample consisted of 999 participants (328 males; 649 females; 22 non‐binary) in total from the 3 universities. The mean age of the sample was 20.48 years (SD = 1.26). Therefore, in this current analysis, we concentrated on their data.
The survey included demographic questions, retrospective questions about sexting experiences in middle and high school, and feelings about sexting (ie, was it pressured or deliberate). Studies show sensitive questions, including deviant behavior, are most likely answered when asked retrospectively. 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 The authors did not opt for using a certain scale explicitly because this survey was meant to be exploratory in nature, looking to expand general understanding of adolescent sexting. Furthermore, to our knowledge, there was no validated sexting scale available for adolescent participants at the time of the fielding. However, we used a survey instrument that has been piloted and utilized 19 , 46 , 47 on a large student body in one of the participating colleges, and has been adjusted based on participation feedback.
Prior to data analysis, Levene's test for homogeneity of variance was conducted on applicable data. Results revealed no significant differences in equality of variances. Data were analyzed using SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 27.0. IBM Corp. Statistical analyses included t tests and chi‐square tests of independence.
Most participants were females (64.9%), who were more likely (52.6%) than males (42.1%) to have engaged in sexting; however, non‐binary individuals sexted more (54.5%) than females. Most participants sexted first at the ages of 16 and 17, with early age onset distribution being slightly tilted toward females who were more likely to have started sexting before the age of 15 (19.9%) and at the age of 15 (21.4%) than males (before age 15:12.6%; at age 15: 9.9%) and non‐binary (before age 15: 11.1%; at age 15: 11.1%) individuals. In all 3 gender groups, participants were most likely to have sent sexts to the person they were in a relationship with (females: 35.1%; males: 26.2%; non‐binary: 22.2%). However, sexting was a way to attract or establishing casual physical intimacy outside of a committed relationship (“hook up”) with persons even outside of relationships for females (37.6%), non‐binary individuals (33.3%), and males (11.3%). Pressured sexting was prevalent in both females (any pressure at females: 77.5%) and non‐binary individuals (any kind of pressure on non‐binary people: 77.8%). Males, however, were most likely to have (68.4%) sexted free of pressure. Aligned with this result, most females (89.6%), non‐binary individuals (72.2%), and males (75.4%) agreed with the statement, “too many people are pressured to sext.” While most females (57.3%) agreed with the statement “females feel more expectations to sext,” fewer males (32.6%) and non‐binary individuals (27.8%) did so. All the above variables showed statistically significant relations (Table 1 ).
Sexting Behaviors and Perceptions Based on Gender (Percentages)