Sexting and family environment of children and adolescents

Our study addresses sexting as the expanding online phenomenon that is now closely related to the adolescence phase of children and teenagers. The main research goal was to investigate the adolescents’ family environment and quality of their relationships with parents, and analyze the subsequent differences of pursuing self - and peer-sexting behavior. We examined 790 respondents aged 12 – 18 who came from all parts of Slovakia. The achieved research results indicate that two-parent families where the stable environment and good relationships prevail can protect the adolescents and reduce the frequency of self - and peer-sexting. On the other hand, the adolescents who grow up in single-parent and reconstructed families or joint custody describe their relationships with parents as rather complicated or poor. As a result, they are statistically more inclined to pursue the individual forms of self and peer-sexting.

The frequency of forwarding one’s own intimate photo at least once a month is higher for the adolescents who live in a less stable family environment and structure (e.g. joint custody, single-parent or reconstructed family). The stability of family environment is a protective factor that lowers sexting frequency. "Children raised by one parent were more inclined to forward the intimate photos than children from the other types of family." (Hollá, K., 2020)