Critical Review

Introduction

In the recent years, relationship dynamics amongst young adults have witnessed a drastic change especially with the emergence of smart phones. One behavior in particular has arisen from this emergence and that is sexual conversation through texting. This is popularly referred to as ‘sexting’.

The given essay discusses this trend amongst young adults while summarizing and critically evaluating an article where sexting and its consequent effect on psychological well-being and sexual behavior have been studied. According to Gordon et al. (2013), sexting among young adults especially in the United States have stimulated debates over its legitimacy and protection.

Summary

The article raises the question whether sexting among young adults has any effect on the sexual behaviors or mental health. In addition, the article also focuses its attention on the legality and safety concerns associated with sexting. The results of the study mentioned in the article however revealed that there is no association between sexting and the psychological welfare (Mitchell et al., 2012).

The authors first describe sexting as the exchange of sexually evocative images, videos or texts through smart phones or any other portable media. Further, they outline its increasing popularity amongst teens and young adults especially in the dating process. However, Weisskirch and Delevi (2011) have explained sexting in the context of adult attachment. They argue that sexting might be a fresh form of articulating attachment anxiety. Many researches and studies were conducted to assess the rising tendency of sexting amongst young adults but hardly any research tried to assess the association between sexting and health behaviors. In the article, the authors have explained the results of their findings while clearly highlighting the limitations of their research. Sexters were demarcated into four categories for the purpose of the research as non-sexters, receivers, senders and tow-way sexters. The article defines non-sexters as those who have never sent or received any sexual text, photo or video. Receivers are those who have received sexually suggestive texts but have never sent any. Senders are those who were involved in sexting but never received sexts. Lastly, two-way sexters have been defined as those who have both sent and received a sext.

To evaluate the supposed relationship between sexting and mental health, the researchers adopted different parameters on which the respondents had to answer. The measures were sexting, sexual behaviors, depression, anxiety, socio-demographic characteristics, self-esteem, and internet use and texting communication. The evaluation of respondents’ sexting behavior under these measures revealed the limited influence on sexual behaviors of young adults and teens. It also explored that although sexting affected the lifetime sexual behaviors, it had no influence on the proportion or number of sex partners.

The results in the article indicated an increased tendency in the sexting behavior of young adults as compared to previous studies. Further, the article also stated that sexting is more often a two-way behavior but it may sometimes lead to psychological distress. This is caused when a sext is made viral and the recipient undergoes extreme mental pressure further resulting in suicidal tendency. 

Critical evaluation

In the article, the authors have described texting and its consequent effect on the behavior and mental health of the youngsters. However, the article had many limitations due to which one cannot reach a proper conclusion whether sexting affects behavior and health or not. A study conducted by Benotsch et al., (2013) contradicted with the results of the chosen article. In the study, the authors found that sexting behavior influenced high-risk sexual behavior amongst youngsters and a high percentage of respondents gave testimony of having sex with a new partner following sexting. This contradiction between studies brings forth the sad picture of the researchers who are yet to identify the risk factors associated with sexting (Dir et al., 2013).

According to Levine (2013), the topic needs elaborated research that would combine multiple reasons that compel young adults to utilize technology for sexual pleasure. The primary reasons for studies on sexting may include sexting for individual safer sex practice, sexting as an inherent part of sexually active partners and sexting being risky to health. It is important to understand that sexting can be used in either ways- negative or positive- and sadly, it had mostly negative effects. However, health practitioners and professional can utilize this tendency to explain the otherwise unexplainable terms related to sex related diseases and benefits of healthy sex.

The article in question although introduced four categories of sexters, it failed to include the fourth category that is the senders in the study due to lack of respondents. Further, the study also lacked participation of individuals that represented various communities. The sample majorly had white Americans and only a few Asians, Africans and other ethnic participants. Moreover, many respondents agreed to participate in the study owing to the referrals by other participants.

Drouin and Tobin (2014) argue that most young adults especially women often consent to unwanted sexting that sometimes deter their mental health. The study thus somewhat negates the results of the chosen article that showed hardly any to no association of sexting with mental health. However, it must also be mentioned that while concluding the research, the authors did point out the need to do extensive research on this topic, as several media reports indicate psychological distress among teens and young adults that is caused by spread of sexts (Döring, 2014). The article also provides in-depth knowledge regarding the young adults’ behavior on sexting and the need to carry out more studies in this regard.

Conclusion

It thus can be concluded that with the emergence and advancement of technology and its easy access, teens and young adults are being more exposed to sexting. Relatively a new phenomenon, sexting entered the social arena during the last decade. Earlier, many did not feel the need to comprehend the depth and seriousness of this behavior but incidences from different parts of the world forced researchers to conduct studies in this filed. The given essay has summarized an article that studied the influence on sexting on mental health and sexual behaviors of young adults. Views and opinions of other authors concerned with the topic have also been outlined in the essay. 

References:

Benotsch, E. G., Snipes, D. J., Martin, A. M., & Bull, S. S. (2013). Sexting, substance use, and sexual risk behavior in young adults. Journal of Adolescent Health, 52(3), 307-313.

Dir, A. L., Coskunpinar, A., Steiner, J. L., & Cyders, M. A. (2013). Understanding differences in sexting behaviors across gender, relationship status, and sexual identity, and the role of expectancies in sexting. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 16(8), 568-574.

Döring, N. (2014). Consensual sexting among adolescents: Risk prevention through abstinence education or safer sexting?. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 8(1).

Drouin, M., & Tobin, E. (2014). Unwanted but consensual sexting among young adults: Relations with attachment and sexual motivations. Computers in Human Behavior, 31, 412-418.

Gordon-Messer, D., Bauermeister, J. A., Grodzinski, A., & Zimmerman, M. (2013). Sexting among young adults. Journal of Adolescent Health, 52(3), 301-306.

Levine, D. (2013). Sexting: a terrifying health risk… or the new normal for young adults?. Journal of Adolescent Health, 52(3), 257-258.

Mitchell, K.J., Finkelhor, D., Jones, L.M. and Wolak, J., 2012. Prevalence and characteristics of youth sexting: A national study. Pediatrics, 129(1), pp.13-20.

Weisskirch, R. S., & Delevi, R. (2011). “Sexting” and adult romantic attachment. Computers in Human Behavior, 27(5), 1697-1701.