Parents’ Role in Adolescents’ Sexting Behaviour

Abstract

In this chapter we provide an overview of parental styles that are used by parents, the application of these parental styles towards media use and the parental mediation of sexual behaviour of adolescents. In adolescents' relational and sexual development, parents may play a role in addressing health risks. As sexting has become a part of intimate communication for adolescents, sexting related risks could be addressed in parents' sex education. Therefore, we integrate the findings of several studies on parenting and discuss which implications parenting may have for sexting behaviour. Investigating how parenting and parental styles could impact upon sexting behaviour is important, as this could lead to practical recommendations to parents on how to prevent and deal with sexting related risks.