Associations between sexual music lyrics and sexting across adolescence. (March 2023) - Keenan-Kroff, Savannah L.
Abstract: There has been little research on the impact of media on sexting behaviors in adolescence, and none regarding the influence of musical lyrics. The goal of the current study was to explore these associations in a longitudinal investigation. Participants were 278 fourteen-year-old adolescents (all cisgender, 49.46% female) who were assessed at three different time points. Participants completed several questionnaires (including music preferences) and were given BlackBerry devices through which frequency of textual sext message utterances were obtained. Sexual content in music preferences was then quantitatively analyzed using the Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC) software. Data was analyzed for Time 1 and Time 3 and results indicated that boys were more likely to participate in sexting in the future when exposed to sexual music lyrics, though there was no association for girls. These and other results are discussed as well as implications for parents and the need for further research on sexting and the behavioral influence of musical lyrics. Highlights: There is little research on the impact of media on adolescent sexting behaviors and none regarding musical lyrics. Boys were more likely to participate in sexting in the future when exposed to sexual music lyrics. There was no association between adolescent girls' sexting behaviors and exposure to sexual music lyrics.