Joris Van Ouytsel

Arizona State University | ASU · Hugh Downs School of Human Communication

This study explores adolescents’ perceptions of applications used for sexting, the motives for engaging in sexting, and the consequences they relate to sexting behavior. We conducted 11 same-sex focus groups among 57 adolescents (66.67% females; n = 38) between 15 and 18 years old in Flanders, Belgium. The analysis revealed that sexting mostly occu...

Importance The existing literature on sexting among youth shows that sexting is a predictor of sexual behavior and may be associated with other health outcomes and risky behaviors. However, there remains a lack of consensus on the prevalence of sexting, which is needed to inform future research, intervention, and policy development. Objective To p...

Sexting is a relatively commonplace behavior among adolescents. A study in southeast Texas found that 27.6% (259 of 964) of teenagers have sent self-made sexually explicit photographs of themselves.¹ For some teenagers, sexting may be a normal part of their sexual development and experimentation.² However, it remains an important public health issu...

Purpose: Although research on adolescent sexting-the sending of self-made sexually explicit pictures through digital media-has increased in recent years, prior studies have primarily focused on older youth and the act of sending of such images. Little is known about the experiences of early adolescent sexual minority youth, who might be particular...

As mobile devices become increasingly versatile and integrated into the daily lives of youth, their use for sexual purposes has also risen. One such example is sexting, which enables adolescents to engage in digital sexual communication and expression via nude and semi-nude imagery. This chapter presents an overview of sexting research among adoles...

This study explored youth’s intention to engage in active bystander behavior in response to non-consensual forwarding of sexts (NCFS). The study paid attention to the possible conditional boundaries of these suggested dynamics based on youth’s empathy levels and sex. An online survey was conducted among 1337 Belgian respondents, of which 78.4% were...

Due to the pandemic, video communication has become a powerful tool in hybrid workplaces. The advantages of videoconferences, such as time, energy, and cost efficiency, are widely known. However, since the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a growing focus on studying the potential drawbacks, such as fatigue and adverse health effects. In this chapt...

Backburner refers to a desired prospective romantic/sexual partner with whom one interacts with the purpose of possibly creating a future romantic or sexual relationship. Modern technology has made it easier to develop and maintain relationships with backburners. This study analyzed the different motivations that individuals (N = 762) use towards t...

Building on the extensive literature highlighting the key role digital and social media play in the lives of LGBTQ people, this article adds a generational perspective by studying the importance of the internet and social media for different generations of men who have sex with men (MSM). Focusing on issues of identity exploration and the search fo...

Sexting concerns the act of sending, receiving, or forwarding sexually explicit messages or photos (i.e., ‘sexts’) through electronic means. When sexts are received or forwarded without the consent of the original sender, this is called non-consensual sexting. Our study set out to increase our understanding as to why individuals engage in non-conse...

Snapchat offers a unique function, the Snapchat Streak, which is a gamified function within the app that motivates users to participate in daily interactions. This feature of the application can aid users in building a friendship with their peers. Given the requirement of interacting on the platform every 24 hours, our exploratory study aims to inv...

The COVID-19 pandemic led to changes in business communication. As face-to-face communication was no longer possible, many businesses shifted to Zoom because of its ease of use and user-friendly functionality. One unique context in which users were forced to transition to fully online communication was entrepreneurs' pitch presentations. This study...

This study explored late adolescents’ and young adults’ willingness to engage in non-consensual forwarding of sexts (NCFS) and its relation to victim blaming beliefs toward female and male victims. The study further examined important determinants in the development of victim blaming beliefs (e.g., perceived victim blaming of peers). An online surv...

This entry provides an introduction to Rogers's protection motivation theory. While originally established as a theoretical framework concentrating on the promotion of behavioral change, the theory has since been recognized as a persuasive communication theory often used within health communication. When a fearful message is perceived, individuals...

Social media and constant online connectivity create opportunities, but also new challenges for early adolescents, who are often still developing their social skills. This focus group study aims to explore young teenagers’ perceptions about how digital media is associated with digital stress within their friendships. We held nine focus group interv...

Despite indications that password sharing is prevalent among early adolescents, limited empirical research has sought to understand why young teenagers share their passwords with others. This exploratory study aims to address this research gap by investigating early adolescents’ perceptions of the motivations and consequences of sharing passwords w...

Human resource (HR) professionals who assess job candidates may engage in cybervetting, the collection and analysis of applicants’ personal information available on social network sites (SNS). This raises important questions about the privacy of job applicants. In this study, interviews were conducted with 24 HR professionals from profit and govern...

Schermen: we zijn er helemaal zot van. En wij niet alleen, want ook de jongste generaties kunnen niet meer zonder. Al negen edities lang zoekt het Apestaartjarenonderzoek uit wat kinderen en jongeren tussen 6 en 18 jaar daar juist mee aanvangen. Welke toestellen gebruiken ze? Hoe gedragen ze zich in de online wereld? Wat kunnen ze al goed en waar h...

This paper explores the role of media among different generations of non-straight men. Based on generational theory, combining the notions of “queer generations” and “media generations,” it empirically explores the role of both legacy and digital media in the processes of sexual identity formation in four post-war generations (Baby Boomers, Generat...

Sexting – een digitale vorm van seksuele communicatie

While studies have identified associations between cyber and in-person dating abuse, most research has relied on cross-sectional data, limiting the ability to determine temporality. This study tested the longitudinal associations between cyber and physical and psychological forms of in-person dating abuse. Data were from an ongoing longitudinal stu...

Sexting, herein defined as the sending of self-made sexually explicit images has mostly been studied within the context of heterosexual relationships and among adolescent and young adult populations. This exploratory mixed-method study aims to investigate the prevalence, context and perceptions of sexting among non-heterosexual men of various gener...

Sexting in young adolescents may be an online form of early sexual debut. We assess the link between potentially problematic sexting (i.e., pressured and receiving unwanted sexts) with known risky behaviors (i.e., substance use and early sexual behavior) among middle school students aged 12 and under. The ethnically diverse sample consisted of 1131...

Many adolescents engage in sexting, the sending of self-made sexually explicit images, within the context of a romantic relationship. The aim of the current study is to contribute to the literature by assessing the associations between sending a sext to a romantic partner, asking for a sext from a romantic partner, and dating violence among adolesc...

When adolescents share their passwords with their friends, they are putting themselves at an increased risk for online abuse victimization. Surprisingly, very little empirical research has tried to understand the context and underlying motivations of adolescent password sharing. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study aims to address this gap in...

Digital media offer ample possibilities for individuals to control and monitor their dating or romantic partner and to make hurtful comments. Although online psychological intimate partner violence has received increased research attention over the past few years, much remains unknown about its nature and its association with offline psychological...

Background: Sexting is an increasingly common phenomenon among adolescents and young adults. Some studies have investigated the role of personality traits in different sexting behaviors within mainstream personality taxonomies like Big Five and HEXACO. However, very few studies have investigated the role of maladaptive personality factors in sexti...

Background Prescription stimulants such as methylphenidate are usually prescribed to treat attention deficit (and hyperactivity) disorders (ADHD). Recently, these drugs have gained popularity among college students, because of the belief that they can help improve academic performance. Objectives This study assessed whether engaging in nonmedical...

Some adolescents use social media platforms, such as Instagram, for sexualized self-presentation, which includes posting images in which someone is scarcely dressed, has a sexy gaze or in which sexual willingness is suggested. These behaviors could be a first step towards sexting. Given that adolescents are highly influenced by peer perceptions, th...

Research on the sexting experiences of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual (LGB) youth is limited. Prior work often does not measure problematic forms of sexting, such as the unauthorized forwarding of sexting images. Furthermore, previous studies did typically not include contextual variables that could provide a better understanding of the behaviors. This...

Introduction Gender minority adolescents, such as transgender, gender nonconforming, gender diverse and non‐binary youth, may face unique challenges with regard to online sexual communication. They may be especially vulnerable for sexting‐related risks. The aim of this study is to explore the sexting experiences of gender minority youth among a sch...

Digital media have gained an important place in young people's lives. More particularly, social media are used by adolescents to interact with friends and to expand their social circle. Within adolescents' unfolding romantic lives, social media are also intensively used. Adolescents may engage in sexting, the exchange of sexually explicit digital m...

From social-network spambots and forensic chatbots to dating simulation games, sexual communication with machines is not uncommon in contemporary culture—however, it remains effectively a black-box phenomenon. There is little empirical research examining how sexual human–machine communication (HMC-S) is experienced, whether it is impactful, or whet...

Sexting has been defined as sharing sexually suggestive content (i.e., sexts) via Internet or smartphone. To date, only a few studies investigated the role of personality traits in relation to sending or receiving sexts, and most of them used the Five Factor Model of Personality. No studies applied the theoretical model of HEXACO six personality tr...

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 o...

Both adolescents and adults use mobile applications to engage in conversations, expand their social networks, and, for some, engage in romantic relationships. While mobile ap plications offer a range of opportunities for maintaining and expanding one's social circle, some users are confronted with forms of aggression. This chapter reviews the scien...

Background The vast differences in sampling techniques, cultural contexts between international studies, the differences in age groups of the samples and various definitions used to measure sexting make it hard to compare how sexting behaviour has evolved over the past years. This exploratory study aims to address this critical gap in the research...

Purpose: This study aims to gain more insight into the prevalence and associations of transactional sexting, which refers to the sending of self-made sexually explicit images or videos in exchange for something else. Methods: A survey was conducted among 2,626 high school students (n = 1,530 girls; 58.4% female) aged between 14 and 21 years (M =...

To the Editor Mori et al¹ provide a much-needed meta-analysis and systematic review of the associations of sexting with sexual behaviors and other health indicators. Their rigorous analysis will be a valuable resource to clinicians. It also serves as another reminder that, despite the boom in sexting research over the past decade, scholars have onl...

Structural equation modeling is applied to investigate how parents’ communication with their child about his or her Internet use is linked to the child’s acceptance of parental authority in the context of Internet use, and how this in turn is linked to the child’s social media behavior. This study surveyed children aged 13 to 18 and their mothers a...

Although adolescent sexting often takes place within the context of adolescents' romantic relationships, little is known about how the behavior is associated with their relationship perceptions. This study addresses this gap in the research by focusing on the associations between adolescents' engagement in sexting and their perceptions of intimacy,...

Adolescents' perceptions of digital media's potential to elicit jealousy, conflict and monitoring behaviors within romantic relationships. Abstract Understanding the role of digital media in adolescents' romantic relationships is essential to the prevention of digital dating violence. This study focuses on adolescents' perceptions of the impact of...

Purpose: To investigate how demographic factors, dating, and sexual behaviors are related to both initial and changing rates of sexting over time, we examined sexting involvement among ethnically diverse adolescents over a 4-year period. Methods: A total of 1,042 participants from seven public high schools throughout southeast Texas (Dating it S...

This entry gives an overview of the different risks both minors and adults can encounter online. A distinction is made between aggression risks (e.g., cyberbullying, cyberstalking), sexual risks (e.g., online pornography, sexting), value‐related risks (e.g., pro‐anorexia sites), and commercial risks (e.g., phishing, gambling). For each risk, preval...

Adolescent sexting remains an important public health issue because of the potential for psychosocial and legal consequences. This article briefly reviews the current state of the science of adolescent sexting research. It serves as an up-to-date and data-driven resource to school nurses and school staff to help augment understanding and facilitate...

Introduction While adolescent sexting, or the sending of sexually explicit images, has been cross‐sectionally associated with bullying and cyberbullying, there is a lack of longitudinal studies in this area. To address this gap in the literature, we examined the longitudinal link between sexting and 1) traditional, in‐person, bullying victimization...

Little is known about parents' motivations to engage in Internet mediation nor about how parents may influence each other's Internet mediation practices. The present study uses triadic data, with reports from the mother, the father, and the adolescent child from the same family (N = 357). Structural equation modeling (SEM) is applied for testing th...

While prior research has identified multiple associations between engagement in sexting and risky behaviors, most existing studies do not take into account the contexts in which sexting occurs. The present study extends prior research by examining whether the associations between adolescents' sexting behavior and engagement in substance use, sexual...

This entry discusses sexting, the sending of self‐made sexually explicit text messages, images, and videos through a computer or a mobile phone. It provides an overview of how the study of sexting has evolved, as well as of the different domains of research, including motives for individuals to engage in sexting, psychological associations of sexti...

In Reply We appreciate the comments by Reed et al on our article¹ and for drawing attention to a pressing concern for parents, educators, and practitioners: that the sharing of sexually explicit images and videos can leave teenagers vulnerable to having their sexts forwarded or shared without consent.

Based on a review of both quantitative and qualitative studies, this chapter aims to explore individuals’ motives for engaging in sexting. The chapter outlines adolescents’ and adults’ various reasons for engaging in sexting, both inside and outside the context of a romantic relationship. These reasons include flirting with a date and sustaining in...

In this chapter we provide an overview of parental styles that are used by parents, the application of these parental styles towards media use and the parental mediation of sexual behaviour of adolescents. In adolescents’ relational and sexual development, parents may play a role in addressing health risks. As sexting has become a part of intimate...

In this introductory chapter, we explore the debate surrounding intimate self-disclosures through social media. Discussions concerning sexting and sexting related incidents are associated with social media affordances. In particular, we investigate how digital media content’s persistence, visibility, spreadability and searchability are linked to ch...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the cross-sectional and temporal associations between cyber dating abuse victimization (CDAV) and mental health (i.e., anxiety, PTSD, and depression), and substance use (i.e., alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana and hard drugs). We used data from the 5th and 6th waves of an ongoing longitudinal study of ethni...

In the current debate around sexting, this book gives a nuanced account of motives, contexts and possible risks of intimate digital communication. The authors discuss how social media shapes new dating opportunities through apps and dating sites and how sexting fits within an individual’s relational and sexual development. They examine the relation...

Sexting is het versturen en ontvangen van zelfgemaakte, seksueel getinte foto’s via het internet of de mobiele telefoon. Onderzoek heeft aangetoond dat één op de vier van de 16- tot 18-jarige Snapchat-gebruikers in Vlaanderen een zelfgemaakte seksueel getinte foto van zichzelf heeft verstuurd. Aanvankelijk werd sexting in de wetenschappelijke liter...

Just as with other forms of abuse such as bullying, dating violence is no longer limited to physical spaces. Several forms of dating violence can also be perpetrated by means of technology. Few studies have used a theoretical perspective to investigate cyber dating abuse. This study addresses this gap in the literature by focusing on the perpetrati...

Dating violence is an important public health concern and is considered to be a form of school violence. While digital technologies have enabled perpetrators of dating violence to target their victims online (cyber dating abuse), little is known about how this form of perpetration relates to specific adolescent risk behaviors. This brief research r...

Experimenteren met romantische relaties is voor veel jongeren een belangrijke ervaring die ook bijdraagt tot hun identiteitsontwikkeling. Het kan echter ook nadelig zijn wanneer jongeren zich in relaties bevinden waarin dwang, controle, of druk voorkomt. Dit artikel geeft een overzicht van verschillende vormen van relationeel geweld onder tieners e...

This brief report describes dating violence victimization among adolescents in Flanders, Belgium, and focuses on how dating violence is related to adolescents' well-being and engagement in risk behaviors, such as substance use, sexual behaviors, and engagement in vandalism or fighting. A survey was conducted in Flanders, Belgium among 1187 adolesce...

This study aims to investigate whether experiences of offline sexual coercion are associated with adolescent females’ involvement in different types of sexting behaviors. It draws on data from 450 ethnically diverse female adolescents with an average age of 19.02 years (SD = 0.74) who were originally recruited in southeast Texas. The participants w...

A substantial amount of U.S. teenagers experience physical or sexual abuse within their romantic relationship. With recent technological advances, teenage dating violence can also be perpetrated digitally by harassing or controlling a romantic partner through the Internet or mobile phone. School nurses are naturally positioned to act as first respo...

Users of social network sites (SNSs) use three main strategies that help to manage the privacy of their profile information: (1) limiting the level of data revealed, (2) using privacy settings to exert control over data and (3) audience/friendship management by being restrictive about whom to accept as a ‘friend’. Extant research does not show whet...

Adolescents’ sexting behavior is associated with serious health and social consequences. The purpose of this study is to analyze which components of the social learning theory are associated with adolescents’ engagement in sexting amongst a sample of 357 respondents. Additionally, we distinguish between two types of online sexual self-disclosure: s...

Critical Media Education: a Commercial Opportunity The speed of the digital revolution makes it more and more a challenge to exploit its opportunities while avoiding its adverse consequences. Therefore the call for media wisdom (media literacy) increases and the responsibility of education is stressed. The role of the media industry in education is...

Controlling one’s romantic partner through digital media is a form of cyber dating abuse. To design effective educational campaigns, a deeper understanding of how some young people become victim of this type of abuse within their romantic relationships is warranted. This study is the first to adopt a lifestyle-routine activities theory perspective...

Gezien kinderen en jongeren een belangrijke doelgroep zijn voor nieuwe gepersonaliseerde en interactieve vormen van online reclame, kan men zich de vraag stellen hoe zij hiermee omgaan en hoe hun kennis zich hierover ontwikkelt. Met andere woorden, hoe evolueert hun reclamewijsheid in een digitale omgeving waarin steeds meer nieuwe vormen van recla...

Sexting has received increasing scholarly and media attention. Especially, minors’ engagement in this behaviour is a source of concern. As adolescents are highly sensitive about their image among peers and prone to peer influence, the present study implemented the prototype willingness model in order to assess how perceptions of peers engaging in s...

Adolescents are the most fervent users of social network sites, hereby disclosing a lot of personal information. In this study, we used the Prototype Willingness Model to examine whether the sharing of personal information about peer relationships follows a rational and intended pathway, or a more impulsive unconscious decision-making pathway. Data...

Regelmatig staan in de media alarmerende berichten over cyberpesten. Het zou een epidemie zijn en het wordt gelinkt aan zelfmoorden door tieners. Is cyberpesten echt zo’n groot probleem? Onderzoek laat zien dat de problematiek allesbehalve eenduidig is. Afhankelijk van de meetmethode varieert het aantal cyberpestslachtoffers van 3,3% tot 72%. Zowel...

Zusammenfassung Um die Medienkompetenz ihrer Schüler steigern zu können, müssen Lehrer und Dozenten der Lehrerbildung diese Kompetenzen zuerst selbst erwerben. Das Forschungsprojekt Media Didactica hat einen einzigartigen konzeptuellen Referenzrahmen für Studierende, Lehrer und Dozenten der Lehrerbildung entwickelt mit dem sie ihre Medienkompetenz...