Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Waehringer Straße 29, 1090, Vienna, Austria.
Department of Media and Communications, University of Klagenfurt, Klagenfurt am Wörthersee, Austria.
Arch Sex Behav. 2022 Jan;51(1):157-168. doi: 10.1007/s10508-022-02292-w. Epub 2022 Feb 7.
When the COVID-19 pandemic began, in early 2020, lockdowns limited the options for physical intimacy and many resorted to technology-mediated forms of intimacy such as sexting. However, it is unclear what predicted willingness to engage in sexting during the lockdown. The present study filled this gap by investigating COVID-19-related social isolation, privacy concerns, age, and gender as predictors of willingness to engage in sexting. We further examined an interaction of COVID-19-related social isolation and privacy concerns on willingness to engage in sexting. We conducted online surveys with 494 young adults (Study 1) and with a quota-based sample of 437 adults (Study 2) in Austria. In both studies, negative binomial regressions revealed a positive effect of COVID-19-related social isolation on willingness to engage in sexting. Privacy concerns hindered young adults in Study 1 from engaging in sexting but not relatively older adults in Study 2. However, in neither study did privacy concerns moderate the effect of COVID-19-related social isolation on willingness to engage in sexting: Even individuals with high privacy concerns were more willing to sext under conditions of social isolation, suggesting that the need for intimacy outweighed the need for privacy protection. Gender had no effect in either study, indicating that men and women used sexting to cope with the unprecedented COVID-19-related situation.
当 COVID-19 大流行于 2020 年初开始时,封锁限制了身体亲密接触的选择,许多人转而采用技术介导的亲密形式,如发色情短信。然而,目前尚不清楚在封锁期间预测愿意进行色情短信交流的因素是什么。本研究通过调查与 COVID-19 相关的社会隔离、隐私问题、年龄和性别,预测了在封锁期间人们愿意进行色情短信交流的意愿。我们进一步研究了 COVID-19 相关的社会隔离和隐私问题之间的相互作用对愿意进行色情短信交流的影响。我们在奥地利对 494 名年轻人(研究 1)和基于配额的 437 名成年人(研究 2)进行了在线调查。在这两项研究中,负二项回归显示,与 COVID-19 相关的社会隔离对进行色情短信交流的意愿有积极影响。隐私问题阻碍了研究 1 中的年轻人进行色情短信交流,但对研究 2 中相对年长的成年人没有影响。然而,在这两项研究中,隐私问题都没有调节与 COVID-19 相关的社会隔离对进行色情短信交流意愿的影响:即使是隐私问题严重的个体,在社会隔离的情况下也更愿意进行色情短信交流,这表明亲密的需求超过了对隐私保护的需求。在这两项研究中,性别都没有影响,这表明男性和女性都使用色情短信交流来应对前所未有的 COVID-19 相关情况。