TY - JOUR
T1 - The relationship between dark triad personality traits and sexting behaviors among adolescents and young adults across 11 countries
AU - Morelli, Mara
AU - Urbini, Flavio
AU - Bianchi, Dora
AU - Baiocco, Roberto
AU - Cattelino, Elena
AU - Laghi, Fiorenzo
AU - Sorokowski, Piotr
AU - Misiak, Michal
AU - Dziekan, Martyna
AU - Hudson, Heather
AU - Marshall, Alexandra
AU - Nguyen, Thanh Truc T.
AU - Mark, Lauren
AU - Kopecky, Kamil
AU - Szotkowski, René
AU - Demirtaş, Ezgi Toplu
AU - Van Ouytsel, Joris
AU - Ponnet, Koen
AU - Walrave, Michel
AU - Zhu, Tingshao
AU - Chen, Ya
AU - Zhao, Nan
AU - Liu, Xiaoqian
AU - Voiskounsky, Alexander
AU - Bogacheva, Nataliya
AU - Ioannou, Maria
AU - Synnott, John
AU - Tzani-Pepelasi, Kalliopi
AU - Balakrishnan, Vimala
AU - Okumu, Moses
AU - Small, Eusebius
AU - Nikolova, Silviya Pavlova
AU - Drouin, Michelle
AU - Chirumbolo, Antonio
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This work was partially supported by Sapienza University of Rome (Project title: The psychological underpinnings of sexting behaviors: A cross-cultural investigation; Grant number: RG11715C7C530999) and the work of Dr. Joris Van Ouytsel was supported by the the Research Foundation – Flanders (Grant number: 12J8719N).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2021/3/1
Y1 - 2021/3/1
N2 - 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 sexting. Therefore, the present study investigated the relationship between Dark Triad Personality Traits and experimental (i.e., sharing own sexts), risky (i.e., sexting under substance use and with strangers), and aggravated sexting (i.e., non-consensual sexting and sexting under pressure) across 11 countries. Methods: An online survey was completed by 6093 participants (Mage = 20.35; SDage = 3.63) from 11 different countries which covered four continents (Europe, Asia, Africa, and America). Participants completed the Sexting Behaviors Questionnaire and the 12-item Dark Triad Dirty Dozen scale. Results: Hierarchical regression analyses showed that sharing own sexts was positively predicted by Machiavellianism and Narcissism. Both risky and aggravated sexting were positively predicted by Machiavellianism and Psychopathy. Conclusions: The present study provided empirical evidence that different sexting behaviors were predicted by Dark Triad Personality Traits, showing a relevant role of Machiavellian-ism in all kinds of investigated sexting behaviors. Research, clinical, and education implications for prevention programs are discussed.
AB - 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 sexting. Therefore, the present study investigated the relationship between Dark Triad Personality Traits and experimental (i.e., sharing own sexts), risky (i.e., sexting under substance use and with strangers), and aggravated sexting (i.e., non-consensual sexting and sexting under pressure) across 11 countries. Methods: An online survey was completed by 6093 participants (Mage = 20.35; SDage = 3.63) from 11 different countries which covered four continents (Europe, Asia, Africa, and America). Participants completed the Sexting Behaviors Questionnaire and the 12-item Dark Triad Dirty Dozen scale. Results: Hierarchical regression analyses showed that sharing own sexts was positively predicted by Machiavellianism and Narcissism. Both risky and aggravated sexting were positively predicted by Machiavellianism and Psychopathy. Conclusions: The present study provided empirical evidence that different sexting behaviors were predicted by Dark Triad Personality Traits, showing a relevant role of Machiavellian-ism in all kinds of investigated sexting behaviors. Research, clinical, and education implications for prevention programs are discussed.
KW - Adolescents
KW - Cross-country investigation
KW - Dark triad traits
KW - Personality
KW - Sexting
KW - Young adults
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U2 - 10.3390/ijerph18052526
DO - 10.3390/ijerph18052526
M3 - Article
C2 - 33806314
AN - SCOPUS:85101940090
SN - 1661-7827
VL - 18
SP - 1
EP - 25
JO - International journal of environmental research and public health
JF - International journal of environmental research and public health
IS - 5
M1 - 2526
ER -