Sexting in emerging adults from Spain, Colombia, and Mexico: Cultural differences in frequency, attitudes, and motives

Abstract

Sexting is a common rising phenomenon among young adults. However, studies focused on sexting behaviors and related factors in Hispanic context are scarce. This study aimed to explore the frequency, motives, and attitudes towards sexting and cross-cultural differences among Hispanic countries in emerging adults and analyze if country and gender attitudes towards sexting were predictors of engagement on sexting. A sample consisting of 3726 emerging adults from Spain, Colombia and Mexico completed a battery of questionnaires assessing these variables. The Spanish sample was composed by 1222 adults (881 women and 342 men; Mage =20.71), the Colombian sample by 1835 adults (1051 women and 784 men; Mage = 19.62) and lastly, the Mexican sample by 669 adults (396 women and 273 men, Mag e= 20.96). Our results showed cross-national differences on sexting engagement, attitudes towards these practices and motivations in both genders. Moreover, across countries and genders, favorable attitudes towards sexting were a strong predictor of engagement, whereas nationality has a differential effect as predictor by gender. Taken together, our results support the potential role of certain cultural factors of each country, especially traditionalism in attitudes toward sexuality, gender inequality, and gender-related values in differences in sexting and its related factors in emerging adults in the Hispanic cultural context.