AD ALTA
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
SEXTING AND FAMILY ENVIRONMENT OF CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS
a
TOMÁŠ TURZÁK,
b
VIERA KURINCOVÁ,
c
KATARÍNA
HOLLÁ,
d
HANA ZELENÁ
a,b,c,d
email:
Department of Education, Faculty of Education,
Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Dražovská 4,
949 74 Nitra, Slovakia
a
tturzak@ukf.sk,
b
vkurincova@ukf.sk,
c
kholla@ukf.sk,
hzelena@ukf.sk
This article complements the solutions of VEGA 1/0100/18 research project –
Self-sexting and peer-sexting and educational influence opportunities.
Abstract: Our study addresses sexting as the expanding online phenomenon that is
now closely related to the adolescence phase of children and teenagers. The main
research goal was to investigate the adolescents’ family environment and quality of
their relationships with parents, and analyze the subsequent differences of pursuing
self - and peer-sexting behavior. We examined 790 respondents aged 12 – 18 who
came from all parts of Slovakia. The achieved research results indicate that two-parent
families where the stable environment and good relationships prevail can protect the
adolescents and reduce the frequency of self - and peer-sexting. On the other hand, the
adolescents who grow up in single-parent and reconstructed families or joint custody
describe their relationships with parents as rather complicated or poor. As a result,
they are statistically more inclined to pursue the individual forms of self and
peer-sexting.
Keywords: family environment, adolescents, sexting, adolescent sexting, cyberspace.
1 Introduction
We can see that the characteristics of the 21
st
century and ‘global
world’ are present in various spheres of our lives. Parents have
to deal with new child-raising and adolescence-related issues
their ancestors could have hardly imagined. Compared to the
past, the family conditions these children are being raised in are
now different in many ways. Their childhood and adolescence
are significantly affected by means of digital communication that
are also involved in the education and socialization process,
development of relations with the outside world, free time,
system of values, knowledge acquisition, etc. Such means of
digital communication apparently have a number of positive
effects; however, they also pose diverse risks the educators have
to face.
Phenomena related to the digital world have become the current
concern of experts, researchers and specialists working in
different fields. Education and pedagogical studies (that
cooperate with the other sciences) treat them as new unexplored
risks to be encountered by children and youth as they enter
cyberspace and perform online activities. One of such issues
refers to the online sexual behaviors among youth today. The
current research is being challenged by the relatively new
adolescent sexting issue. J. Burén (2018), states that sexting has
recently reached the attention and interest of many professionals
and scholars. Rather positive contributions of related scientific
studies are thus the research data which helps us better
understand this phenomenon. The problem is that most
theoretical knowledge and empiric findings are based in the US.
It is therefore disputable to what extent this data is applicable for
European countries (Baumgartner, S. E. et al., 2014).
In the above-mentioned context, the present study addresses
sexting itself and the impact of family environment on sexting
occurrence among children and adolescents. Our goal is to find
the answers on the national level.
1.1
Sexting as a studied online phenomenon
Although the sexting activity is rather common for the adults and
adolescents, the actual concept of ‘sexting’ is not as frequent in
the pedagogical, education, psychological, medical or judicial
sciences. The term itself combines two words: ‘sex’ and
‘texting’.
Sexting is most often defined as sending/receiving sexual and
sexually explicit electronic messages (e.g. SMS, MMS and
emails), materials or contents (such as nude or half-naked photos
and videos). The age of such communication actors has its
pedagogical and psychological, as well as social, moral and legal
aspects.
K. Martinez-Prather and D. M. Vandiver (2014) claim that the
generally accepted definition of sexting does not exist yet. They
draw attention to the severe methodological impacts the absence
of specialized researchers’ consensus has in this case (compare
Barrense-Dias, Berchtold, Surís and Akre, 2017). Sexting
generally includes the adolescents’ activities (such as circulating
sexual contents among peers) which seem to result from this
millennium's hyper-sexualized culture. As the number of
children and adolescents who regularly use their cellphones
increases, the subsequent risks of such sexting activities also
rise. Another tendency applies to the parental control and
restrictions for the adolescents’ use of cellphones, i.e. more
frequent control reduces the chances of sexting behavior.
Digital communication media and Internet have considerably
changed the way the adolescents communicate and make
contacts. Apparently, sexting became one of these
communication methods. Young people have their own intimate
desires to share. If they want to express them harmlessly during
their personal and sexual development or through sexting, we
should be sensitive to their decisions. Yet, we must be aware that
the misuse of such intimate materials can have serious
consequences. From this perspective, the issue is indeed
controversial and disputable. The perception of Internet as a
popular way to pursue sexual activities is also supported by the
Triple A Engine Theory (Cooper, A., 1998). It cites easy
accessibility, affordability and anonymity as explanations. This
theory was later complemented by other researchers. Hertlein &
Stevenson (2010) related the Internet’s popularity and the Triple
A Engine Theory to intimacy problems in relationships and
extended the original Cooper’s concept to additional
A-explanations – approximation, acceptability, ambiguity and
accommodation (see Cooper, A. et al., 2000, Jonsson, L. S.,
2015). K. Young et al. propose the ACE model, incorporating
anonymity the Internet offers, convenience of performing such
activities comfortably from home and immediate escape from
sexting as factors salient to the Internet (Griffiths, D.M., 2017).
The other Triple C Engine Theory (Reinhold, 2000) regards the
Internet as an interactive medium in which all participants are
not only recipients, but also potential senders. The Internet
provides opportunity for communication, collaboration and
social life, as well as construction of virtual communities
(Leiblum, S., Doring, N., 2002, In Cooper, A. ed. 2002). To
examine the motivating factors of sexting, K. Martinez-Prather
and D.M. Vandiver (2014) apply Cohen and Felson’s
criminological Routine Activities Theory which holds that the
criminal activity occurs when three essential elements of crime
converge in space and time: the offender, an attractive target and
the absence of capable guardianship. As for sexting, the offender
is sext sender (sexter), the attractive target is sext receiver and
the capable guardianship is provided by educator. Sexting is not
possible if one of these elements is absent.
The adolescents’ motives to perform sexting activities are of
different kinds. Based on the extensive references, J. Burén
(2018) states that sexting is often a fun way to flirt or attract
someone, it can be also a constructive part of being in a romantic
relationship. Some adolescents see sexting as a safer pursuit of
sexual activities – compared to the offline interpersonal sexual
interaction. Girls use sexting to gain popularity and boys’
attention, i.e. to assure themselves of their good and attractive
looks. Young men are not as urged to do such activities as girls.
Teenage girls are often directly and indirectly pressured by their
surroundings or boyfriends they fear to lose without sexting.
Burén further explains that motivation is a significant factor in
the evaluation of sexting as an acceptable, inappropriate or
inacceptable activity. Sexting is now a natural part of youth’s
sexual development and rather frequent among the older
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