PSYCHOSOCIODEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS AND SEXTING AMONG ADOLESCENTS IN OYO EAST LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Abstract

Sexting is prevalent among youths and has gained increasing empirical attention due to its implications and possible consequences on the adolescents. Extant literatures have dwelled more on the frequency and the consequence of sexting among adolescents with very minute attention towards determinants of such as self-esteem, peer influence, religiosity, psychological well-being, gender and age as a determinant of sexting among adolescents in Oyo East Local Government, Oyo State, Nigeria. The study employed a descriptive research design of correlational type. The sample size of the study was 300 respondents. The researcher adopted a multistage sampling procedure in selecting the respondents. The samples consist of both male and female students from the senior secondary school category. Instrument utilized were Sexting Behavior, Self-esteem, Religiosity, Peer Influence, Psychological well-being Scales. The findings show that Sexting had a significant relationship between peer influence (r = 0.227), gender (r = 0.253), self-esteem (r = -0.220), religiosity (r = -0.508). Also, there is a significant composite contribution of self-esteem, peer influence, religiosity, psychological well-being, gender and age to the prediction of sexting was (F = 70.744; p<0.05), while the adjusted (R² = 0.583) shows that self-esteem, peer influence, religiosity, psychological wellbeing, gender and age accounted for 58.3% of the variation in sexting. Further analysis revealed that peer influence (β = -0.439, t = 9.853, p<0.05), religiosity (β = -0.622, t = -13.790, p<0.05), psychological wellbeing (β = -0.206; t = -4.390, p<0.05) and gender (β = 0.560; t = 12.932, p<0.05) all had significant relative contributions to adolescents’ sexting. Consequently, it is concluded that more attention should be placed on the peer influence among the adolescents, the type of religiosity belief the adolescents uphold, psychological wellbeing of the students and the kind of company the adolescents keep as all these significantly determine their engagement with sexting contents.