Paper Info
Title
Sending and receiving text messages with sexual content: Relations with early sexual activity and borderline personality features in late adolescence.
Abstract
This research examined adolescents' written text messages with sexual content to investigate how sexting relates to sexual activity and borderline personality features. Participants (N = 181, 85 girls) completed a measure of borderline personality features prior to 10th grade and were subsequently given smartphones configured to capture the content of their text messages. Four days of text messaging were micro-coded for content related to sex. Following 12th grade, participants reported on their sexual activity and again completed a measure of borderline personality features. Results showed that engaging in sexting at age 16 was associated with reporting an early sexual debut, having sexual intercourse experience, having multiple sex partners, and engaging in drug use in combination with sexual activity two years later. Girls engaging in sex talk were more likely to have had sexual intercourse by age 18. Text messaging about hypothetical sex in grade 10 also predicted borderline personality features at age 18. These findings suggest that sending text messages with sexual content poses risks for adolescents. Programs to prevent risky sexual activity and to promote psychological health could be enhanced by teaching adolescents to use digital communication responsibly.
Year
DOI
Venue
2017
10.1016/j.chb.2016.12.082
Computers in Human Behavior
Keywords
Field
DocType
Text messaging,Sexting,Sexual activity,Risky sexual activity,Borderline personality features,Adolescents
Social psychology,Developmental psychology,Sexual intercourse,Psychology,Multiple sex partners,Personality
Journal
Volume
ISSN
Citations 
70
0747-5632
0
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.34
5
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Dawn Y. Brinkley100.34
Robert A. Ackerman200.34
Samuel E. Ehrenreich300.34
Marion K. Underwood400.34