Sexting in adolescence: prevalence and association with victimization of cyberbullying and dating violence

The main objective of this study was to expand the current empirical evidence on the frequency of sexting in adolescence and its relationship with different types of victimization: cyberbullying (sexual and psychological) and dating violence. Participants were 303 adolescents (51.7% females) between 14 and 18 years old (M= 15.3, SD= 1.01) from three high schools. The results showed that more than one third of the participants reported having practiced sexting at least once, without significant differences between boys and girls. Sexting was associated with cyberbullying victimization (both psychological and sexual) and, for girls, with dating violence victimization. It is concluded that sexting is a common practice among adolescents, so it would be important to develop educational interventions to improve adolescents’ knowledge about its potential risks and consequences.