Correlation between sexting behaviors and mobile phone dependency in nursing students

Abstract

Introduction. Sexting is defined as the sending of erotic or pornographic content through digital devices; It’s a term of daily use whose practice may bring positive effects, and on the other hand risks for sexual and mental health as shown in different studies. Regarding mobile dependency, this practice has increased in university students, who need to create, share, and download content. Both phenomena have factors in common that may signify an unexplored relationship. Objective. To determine the correlation between sexting behaviors mobile phone dependency in nursing college students. Methodology. This is an observational, cross-sectional, and correlational study, with a non-probabilistic convenience sampling method that included undergraduate nursing students at a public university in Mexico, the Pearson and Spearman correlation was used on the results of the totals and components of the instruments: behaviors on sexting and Mobile Dependency Test. Results. With 300 participants, it is reported that 64.7% declare having participated in sexting through text messages, sharing images, among other forms of participation; On the other hand, in terms of mobile phone dependency, 96.3% were in a medium and high dependency. When comparing the final summations of each instrument, a positive correlation is obtained with r.=0.166, p<0.050. Conclusion. A positive correlation between sexting and mobile phone dependency is the first indicator to explore in-depth the common factors that predispose and that can derive from both phenomena in the young population.