Sexting
Sexting in emerging adults from Spain, Colombia, and Mexico: Cultural differences in frequency, attitudes, and motives.
Open Access: Yes
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 genderrelated values in differences in sexting and its related factors in emerging adults in the Hispanic cultural context.
Relevance
“Our findings highlighted the relevance of cultural factors to the expression of sexting as a phenomenon in this population group, and how these factors modulate sexting behaviors, and finally, how gender also influenced some of these variables.”
The current study found “high predictive power of attitudes toward sexting across gender and country, especially attitudes related to fun and carefree attitudes and relational expectations.”
“As for the motives why sexting is practiced, our data are consistent with previous findings from research on adolescents and international studies on adults and revealed that the two main motives across gender and country were increasing intimacy with one’s partner and receiving and sending requests from one’s partner. It reflects the current social acceptance of sexting behaviors as part of affective and sexual relationships.”
Citation
Cervigón-Carrasco, V., Ballester-Arnal, R., Cárdenas-López, G., Jiménez-Martínez, M. C., & Gil-Llario, M. D. (2025). Sexting in emerging adults from Spain, Colombia, and Mexico: Cultural differences in frequency, attitudes, and motives. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 106, Article 102174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2025.102174
