Sexting and mental health among a spanish college sample: an exploratory analysis
Author
Gasso, Aina M.
Mueller-Johnson, Katrin
Agustina, José R.
Montiel Juan, Irene
Publication date
2019ISSN
0974–2891
Abstract
Recent research on sexting suggests it could be related to mental health, but so far studies have often used simple and not clinically validated measures of mental health. Specific aims of this study were: 1) to analyze the lifetime prevalence of sexting behaviors among a Spanish College Sample by gender, and 2) to examine the psychopathological profile of those students who engaged in sexting. Method: The sample consisted of 120 Spanish college students (75% female, 22.1 mean age) who took part in an online survey about their engagement in sexting behaviors and psychopathological symptomatology, measured by LSB-50. Results: Out of the sample, 42% of participants engaged in active sexting behaviors, 58% in passive sexting, and 31% of participants had both received content and sent content. Furthermore, 41.1% of the sample showed depressive symptoms, whilst 52.7% reported anxiety symptoms, and sexters were 2.98 times more likely to be depressed, 2.52 times more likely to have anxiety, and 2.63 times more likely to show global psychopathology than non-sexters. Conclusions: Sexting is highly prevalent amongst Spanish college students, and those people who engage in sexting have higher ratios of mental health issues.
Document Type
Article
Document version
Accepted version
Language
English
Subject (CDU)
159.9 - Psychology
Keywords
Salut mental
Sexting
Sexualitat
Depressió psíquica
Salud mental
Sexualidad
Costumbres sexuales
Depresión mental
Mental health
Sexting
Sexuality
Mental depression
Pages
14
Publisher
International Journal of Cyber Criminology
Collection
13; 2
Is part of
International Journal of Cyber Criminology
Citation
Gassó, Aina M.; Mueller-Johnson, Katrin; Agustina Sanllehí, José Ramón [et al.]. Sexting and mental health among a spanish college sample: an exploratory analysis. International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 2019, 13(2), p. 534-547. Disponible en: <http://www.cybercrimejournal.com/GassoetalVol13Issue2IJCC2019.pdf>. Fecha de acceso: 17 may. 2020. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3709214.
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
- Dret [121]
Rights
IJCC articles are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, at the free choice of the authors. Under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, share alike, for non-commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited.
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/