“Hit me up and we can get down” U.S. youths’ risk behaviors and sexual self-disclosure in MySpace profiles
Issue Date
2011-12-02Author
Bobkowski, Peter S.
Brown, Jane D.
Neffa, Deborah R.
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Type
Article
Article Version
Scholarly/refereed, author accepted manuscript
Rights
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Children and Media on 02 December 2011, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/17482798.2011.633412.
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Show full item recordAbstract
Young people’s sexual self-disclosures in social media profiles can be problematic for those who produce them and for those who consume them. This study merged a content analysis with survey data to identify the characteristics of youth who engaged in online sexual self-disclosure. MySpace profiles belonging to 560 National Study of Youth and Religion respondents in the United States (18 to 23 years old) were analyzed (56,462 content units). A third of the profiles contained at least one sexual self-disclosure; their average incidence was less than one per profile. Online sexual self-disclosure was associated with offline sexual risk behaviors (e.g., sex with casual partners), and with increased frequency of alcohol consumption. Among sexually active females, it was associated with early sexual debut. In light of problem behavior theory, these findings suggest that online sexual self-disclosure may be considered a sexual risk behavior.
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Citation
Bobkowski, P. S., Brown, J. D., & Neffa, D. R. (2012). "Hit me up and we can get down:" U.S. youths' risk behaviors and sexual self-disclosure in MySpace profiles. Journal of Children and Media, 6, 119-134.
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