Sexting and mental health among young Australians attending a musical festival: a cross sext-ional study

Abstract

Sexting is widely prevalent among young adults; however, the impact of sexting on mental health is not fully understood. This study aimed to investigate sexting behavior among young adults (18-30 years) attending an Australian music festival and the impact of sexting on mental health. A paper survey was completed by 776 respondents. Psychological distress (Kessler 6) was classified as "distressed" or "not distressed." Univariate and logistic regressions were used to test the associations between sexting and distress. In the past 12 months, 53.1 percent of respondents had sent a sexually explicit message, 43.1 percent had sent a sexually explicit image, 61.2 percent had received a sexually explicit message, and 55.1 percent had received a sexually explicit image. Three quarters of respondents (73.1 percent) felt that sexting could have a positive impact. No association was found between the frequency of sending and receiving sexually explicit images or messages in univariate analyses. However, the more unwanted messages/images were received in the past year, the more likely respondents were to be distressed as seen in univariate analyses. After adjusting for gender, sexual orientation, and alcohol, people who received 5 or more unsolicited messages were 2.4 times more likely to be distressed (odds ratio = 2.42, 95% confidence interval = 1.33-4.40, p = 0.004). In conclusion, this study showed that sexting is common and that the more unsolicited sexts that were received, the higher the distress level. Policymakers and program developers should be aware of the positive and negative impact of sexting.