Elsevier

Current Opinion in Psychology

Volume 36, December 2020, Pages 55-59
Current Opinion in Psychology

Sexting within young adults’ dating and romantic relationships

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2020.04.007Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Sexting among young adults has increased over the past years.

  • Sexting can be a normal form of contemporary sexual communication.

  • Sextortion, pressured sexting, and nonconsensual sexting are problematic.

  • Given its many conceptualizations, a uniform measure is warranted for future research.

  • Sexting research needs to focus on both adolescents as well as adults of all ages.

Sexting, herein defined as the sending of self-made sexually explicit images, is a modern-day form of sexual communication. This review discusses recent findings in sexting research among (young) adults. We find that despite its risks, sexting is increasingly used within dating and romantic relationships and can carry different meanings depending on the context in which the images are exchanged. Risks associated with sexting include pressure, experiences of unwanted sexting, unauthorized distribution, and coercion. Problematic forms of sexting can have significant consequences on the victims. We suggest the need for future research to make use of a uniform and nuanced measure of sexting and underscore the need to focus on adolescents as well as adults of all ages.

Introduction

From ‘swiping’ on Tinder and ‘tapping’ on Grindr, becoming ‘Facebook Official’ to stalking your ex-partner on Instagram, digital media have transformed how we initiate, maintain, and terminate our intimate relationships [1,2]. The characteristics of digital communication, such as invisibility, anonymity, the lack of non-verbal cues and the asynchronous nature of online communication, allow individuals to disclose information to their partners that they would otherwise not immediately share in offline settings (i.e., the online disinhibition effect) [3••]. One of the prime examples of the ‘online disinhibition effect’ is cybersex, the use of the Internet for sexually gratifying activities [4,5].

Over the past decade, research on the role of digital media in modern dating and romantic relationships has steadily grown. In this brief review, we will focus on the use of digital media to engage in sexting among (young) adults. Sexting is a more recent form of sexual communication that is used within casual and romantic relationships.

Section snippets

Sexting and its complicated definition

Sexting can be broadly defined as “the sharing of personal, sexually suggestive text messages, or nude or nearly nude photographs or videos via electronic devices” [6••; P.1]. Sexting has not been conceptualized uniformly across studies. Some studies use a broad definition, while others focus on specific types of content such as text messages or self-made sexually explicit images. The disagreement among scholars on how to define sexting makes it hard to accurately assess its prevalence and

Motivations for sexting

A majority of sexting research has focused on investigating the motivations for why individuals engage in sexting [12]. A sexting image may carry different meanings, depending on the context in which it is shared [13••]. In the early stages of dating and romantic relationships, sexting messages can be exchanged within the context of (online) dating as a means to flirt or to express sexual interest [6••,9,14]. The willingness to send a sext to a dating app match is associated with a lower

Sexting and experiences of abuse

Young adults, and especially young adult women, also report they often experience pressure to engage in sexting [9]. The pressure can be subtle by making women feel obligated or by repeated asking [20,27]. Women often feel they have to respond to the images to preserve their relationship or to avoid an argument with their partner [9,19,20,28]. That sexting may sometimes occur under pressure or in amore coercive relationship is also echoed by studies who found associations between sexting and

Sexting and psychosocial correlates

Another line of research focuses on the associations between sexting and several health outcomes. It will come as no surprise that sexting sometimes leads to physical sex [32], as it is often a built-up to sexual contact. Sexting is also associated with risky sexual behaviors (e.g., sex without protection, or substance use before having sex) [33,34, 35, 36]. Sexting has also been associated with alcohol consumption [10,30,34,35,37, 38, 39].

One of the few exploratory studies on unsolicited

Can sexting improve romantic and sexual relationships?

Given that sexting often occurs within the context of a romantic relationship, several studies have looked into the question of whether sexting can improve romantic relationships. Among adults, these studies have found mixed results. Some studies have found a positive relationship between sexting and relationship satisfaction [48], while others have found no associations between sexting with a romantic partner and sexual satisfaction or relationship satisfaction [15,49]. Another study found an

Conclusions, outlook and future research

The aim of this short review was to provide an overview of recent sexting research, with a focus on young and emerging adults. Research on sexting started around 2009 [51]. While significant progress has been made over the past decade, the field of research on online sexual communication, and specifically sexting, is still emerging [51]. We see several challenges for future research in the area of sexting among (young) adults.

First, while a majority of sexting research has focused on examining

Funding source

The work of Dr Joris Van Ouytsel is supported by the Research Foundation Flanders (12J8719N) and the Research Fund of the University of Antwerp (BOF — Klein Project FFB200066). The writing of the report and the decision to submit the article for publication were the sole responsibility of the authors and were in no way influenced by the funding institutions.

Financial disclosure

The authors have no financial relationships relevant to this article to disclose

Conflict of interest statement

Nothing declared.

References and recommended reading

Papers of particular interest, published within the period of review, have been highlighted as:

  • • of special interest

  • •• of outstanding interest

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Joris Van Ouytsel: Conceptualization, Investigation, Project administration, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. Narissra M Punyanunt-Carter: Supervision, Writing - review & editing. Michel Walrave: Supervision, Writing - review & editing. Koen Ponnet: Supervision, Writing - review & editing.

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