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Happy or Unhappy? Mental Health Correlates of Receiving Sexts and Unsolicited Sexual Images

Sciacca, Beatrice orcid logoORCID: 0000-0003-0678-4902, Mazzone, Angela orcid logoORCID: 0000-0002-5858-8033, Loftsson, Magnus, O'Higgins Norman, James orcid logoORCID: 0000-0003-0997-6942 and Foody, Mairéad orcid logoORCID: 0000-0003-0026-0294 (2024) Happy or Unhappy? Mental Health Correlates of Receiving Sexts and Unsolicited Sexual Images. Youth & Society, 56 (7). pp. 1315-1335. ISSN 0044-118X

Abstract
This study investigated the prevalence of receiving sexts among adolescents and its relationship with depressive symptoms and self-esteem. A survey was administered to 728 high school students in Sweden in 2019 and 2020 (50.4% girls and 46.4% boys) using a cross-sectional design. Findings showed that significantly more boys (28.4%) than girls (12.6%) reported having happily received a sexual picture, while significantly more girls (48.8%) than boys (s.2%) reported having received an unwanted sexual picture at least once in their life. Happily receiving a sexual picture was not related to any of the investigated mental health correlates among girls, whereas it was positively associated with depressive symptoms among boys. Receiving an unsolicited sexual picture was associated with higher depressive symptoms and lower self-esteem for both boys and girls. This work offers a novel approach to studying the reception of sexual images by teenagers Practical implications of the present findings are discussed.
Metadata
Item Type:Article (Published)
Refereed:Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords:Sexting, self-esteem, depressive symptoms, adolescence
Subjects:Social Sciences > Cyberbullying
Social Sciences > Social psychology
Social Sciences > Gender
DCU Faculties and Centres:Research Institutes and Centres > DCU Anti-Bullying Centre (ABC)
Publisher:Sage Publications Ltd.
Official URL:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0044118X2...
Copyright Information:This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Funders:Irish Research Council, Horizon 2020
ID Code:31709
Deposited On:22 Oct 2025 13:37 by Beatrice Sciacca . Last Modified 22 Oct 2025 13:37
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