Abstract:

The recent accelerated progress of information and communication technologies offers a number of new information and opportunities, yet it also comes with a whole range of undesirable effects that seems to increase. Our study addresses sexting as the expanding online phenomenon that is now closely related to the adolescence phase of children and teenagers.

Objective:
The present study analyzes and compares sexting latent classes researched in 2015 and 2019.

Methods:
In 2015, the research sample consisted of 1,619 Slovak adolescents aged 11 – 18. Then in 2019, 777 Slovak adolescents aged 12 – 18 participated in the research again.
The studies were based on the Cyberbullying and Online Aggression questionnaire (Patchin J.W., Hinduja S.). This research instrument examined respondents’ involvement in sexting. Finally, different groups of sexting agents were determined through the Latent Class Analysis (LCA) and the subsequent regression model.

Results:
In 2015, the LCA defined four existing groups of sexting agents – non sexters, receivers, senders and two way sexters. In 2019, on the other hand, the LCA confirmed only three groups of sexting agents – non sexters, receivers and two way sexters. We can also state that sexting activities depend on age. As the adolescents grow older, their involvement in sexting is higher. While boys tend to engage in both – sext receiving and two way sexting, girls are mostly the receivers.

Keywords:

Sexting, sexters, children, teenagers, Latent Class Analysis.