Department of Communication Studies, University of Antwerp, Sint-Jacobsstraat 2, 2000, Antwerp, Belgium.
Department of Ob/Gyn, UTMB Health, 301 University Blvd, Galveston, TX, 77555-0587, USA.
J Adolesc. 2019 Jun;73:36-41. doi: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2019.03.008. Epub 2019 Apr 5.
While adolescent sexting, or the sending of sexually explicit images, has been cross-sectionally associated with bullying and cyberbullying, there is a lack of longitudinal studies in this area. To address this gap in the literature, we examined the longitudinal link between sexting and 1) traditional, in-person, bullying victimization and 2) cyberbullying victimization.
We used data from a longitudinal study of ethnically diverse adolescents recruited from multiple public high schools in southeast Texas. Three waves of data were used (T2, T3 and T4). Cross-lagged panel analysis was performed in Mplus to analyze the data.
RESULTS & CONCLUSIONS: Cross-lagged panel analyses identified autoregressive effects for all three variables, and cross-lagged effects for cyberbullying. Sexting was associated with subsequent cyberbullying victimization across all time points, and T3 cyberbullying victimization was associated with engagement in sexting one year later. Furthermore, T2 cyberbullying victimization indirectly associated with T4 sexting via T3 cyberbullying victimization. For traditional bullying, a cross-lagged effect was found between T3 sexting and T4 offline bullying victimization. Although T2 sexting did not directly link to subsequent traditional bullying victimization, a significant mediation effect was identified such that T3 sexting mediated the effects of T2 sexting on T4 traditional bullying victimization. Results show that sexting adolescents may be at risk for (cyber)bullying victimization and highlight the need to address both sexting and bullying in prevention and intervention efforts.
尽管青少年发送色情图片（即发色情短信）与欺凌和网络欺凌之间存在横断面关联，但在这一领域缺乏纵向研究。为了弥补文献中的这一空白，我们检验了发色情短信与以下两者之间的纵向联系：1）传统的面对面欺凌受害，2）网络欺凌受害。
我们使用了一项来自德克萨斯州东南部多所公立高中的种族多样化青少年的纵向研究的数据。使用了三波数据（T2、T3 和 T4）。采用 Mplus 中的交叉滞后面板分析来分析数据。
交叉滞后面板分析确定了所有三个变量的自回归效应，以及网络欺凌的交叉滞后效应。在所有时间点，发色情短信都与随后的网络欺凌受害有关，而 T3 网络欺凌受害与一年后参与发色情短信有关。此外，T2 网络欺凌受害通过 T3 网络欺凌受害间接与 T4 发色情短信相关。对于传统欺凌，在 T3 发色情短信和 T4 线下欺凌受害之间发现了交叉滞后效应。虽然 T2 发色情短信与随后的传统欺凌受害之间没有直接联系，但发现了一个显著的中介效应，即 T3 发色情短信中介了 T2 发色情短信对 T4 传统欺凌受害的影响。结果表明，发色情短信的青少年可能面临（网络）欺凌受害的风险，突出了在预防和干预工作中既要解决发色情短信问题又要解决欺凌问题的必要性。
