Predictors of mobile sexting among teens: Toward a new explanatory framework

Abstract

This study posits a framework for conceptualizing the practice of adolescent sexting in order to help explain this behavior and inform decisions about whether and how to address it. Select theoretical propositions about the role of mobile communication in the “social emancipation” of youth were explicated and tested using a national survey of teens in the US. Drawing from this perspective, we hypothesized that sexting would be associated with levels of peer and family mobile connectivity, although in opposite ways, as well as parental control over the technology. As hypothesized, involvement in sexting was positively predicted by connectedness to peers through mobile communication and negatively predicted by connectedness to family. Although sexting was less likely with mobile connectedness to family, heavy-handed parental control over the technology was not a predictor. The discussion offers theoretical and practical implications of these and other findings, along with directions for future research.