Sexting Attitude, Sexting Behaviour and Emotion Regulation Difficulties on Risky Sexual Behaviour among Indian Emerging Adults

Sexting has primarily been studied with the focus on prevalence, motivations, determinants and outcomes among adolescents and young adults primarily on the European and American population. This study focused on the sexting attitudes and examined its relationship with sexting attitudes, sexting behaviour, emotional regulation difficulties and risky sexual behaviour (RSB) in India. A sample of emerging adults (N = 389) aged 18-29 participated in this online survey study by filling self report measures such as difficulties in emotion regulation scale-16, attitudes towards sexting instrument, sexual risk survey, sexting behaviour inventory. The results revealed that male participants exhibited higher RSB compared to females. Sexting attitude was positively correlated with sexting behaviour and RSB along with positive correlation between sexting behaviour and RSB. RSB and age were also found to be positively correlated whereas age showed negative correlations with emotion regulation difficulties. Furthermore, the results showed that sexting behaviour acted as a mediator between sexting attitude and RSB while relationship status acted as a moderator. The study contributes to the field of sex education and produces insights on people’s attitudes and behaviours promoting conversation and normalising the topic to encourage safer practices. These findings indicate a need for further investigation of the influence of social, cultural factors on RSB for comprehensive understanding as well as a need for early sex education and literacy.