Article van Ouytsel: Sexting within adolescents’ romantic relationships:
How is it related to perceptions of love and verbal conflict?
Adolescents’ romantic relationships differ from those of adults in several ways
● adolescents usually live with their caretakers and they do not have the
opportunity to live together with their romantic partner
● adolescents’ romantic relationships are often short-lived
● adolescents have different perceptions of what a romantic relationship
should look like
Triangular theory of love: intimacy, passion and commitment
Research question
● How does adolescent sexting relate to perceptions of intimacy, passion and
commitment as defined by the triangular theory of love?
Adolescents who engage in sexting were more likely to experience digital forms
of control and monitoring by their romantic partner. Women were more likely to
experience victimization than men.
Discussion
● higher feelings of sexual attraction, passion and sexual arousal towards a
partner are found to be related to their engagement in sexting
○ adolescents who perceive their romantic relationships as more
passionate, might be motivated to use sexting as a way to explore
sexual behaviors
● sexting is associated with a higher self-reported sexual satisfaction
compared to non-sexters
● there are no significant associations between perceptions of emotional
intimacy or commitment and engagement in sexting behavior
● higher perceptions of verbal conflict within romantic relationships were
significantly associated with adolescents’ engagement in sexting
● prevention and educational efforts on safer sexting behavior could
○ integrate messaging on healthy relationships and dating violence
prevention and vice versa
○ focus on strategies for adolescents to negotiate safer sexting
behaviors and discuss strategies on how to refuse to send a sexting
message
Valkenburg Chapter 6: Adolescents
Generation digital
We divide adolescents into two age groups: early adolescence (ages 12-15) and late
adolescence (ages 16-19). There are two reasons for this decision
, ● puberty is thought to begin at approximately eleven years of age and to
conclude around fifteen
● this segmentation decision is pragmatic
○ much of the research on teens and media use seems to focus on one
or the other of these two groups
Early adolescence
Puberty, the period between the ages of eleven and sixteen, is characterized by
intense physical changes that, in turn, affect adolescents’ emotions and cognition.
Around the start of puberty, gray matter starts to decline in volume. Gray matter is
responsible for information processing. Unlike gray matter, white matter increases
in volume throughout late childhood and adolescence. White matter consists of
the pathways that connect neurons to one another.
The prefrontal cortex of adolescents is not structurally immature even though a
lot of people think it is. The maturity of the prefrontal cortex appears to depend
on adolescents’ motivation to keep their appointments, to structure their
thoughts and plan their activities.
Early adolescents no longer take the world for what it is. They are quick to find
something implausible. In addition to adolescents’ increasingly abstract thinking
and problem solving skills, their metacognitive skills improve significantly during
this period. Metacognitive skills are skills to evaluate one’s own thoughts.
Moderate discrepancy hypothesis: children and teens are most interested in
media content that departs moderately from their level of cognitive and
social-emotional development. Speed and variety are the norm in this age group.
This may explain why apps such as Snapchat and Vine have become so popular
with this age group.
Beyond variety and speed, early adolescents are looking for plausible content in
entertainment media content. Story lines should be logical, characters should fit
within the context of adolescents’ social and cultural background, and historical
and situational factors should be true to life.
Early adolescents become interested in complex forms of humor involving irony,
sarcasm and cynicism. In addition, early adolescents begin to prefer spontaneous,
witty forms of humor to the ready-made jokes and riddles popular with children.
As children move into early adolescence, they show an increased interest in horror
movies, vampires and high-risk sports. Why might this occur?
● there is an increase in the activity of neural axons, which use dopamine
○ dopamine is thought to co-occur with feelings of enjoyment and to
reinforce a tendency to do certain activities
, ○ dopamine also plays a role in the desire to embark on new or
exciting adventures
The changes in the dopamine system during adolescence may lead teens to act
more impulsively than children or adults and to show a greater tendency toward
risk taking.
Early adolescence is also a time when teens exhibit an increased interest in
thrilling media content (vampires, extreme sports or stunts and horror movies)
To gain autonomy, teens have to develop three key social-emotional subgoals
● they need to develop a stable identity, a reasonably firm sense of who they
are and who they would like to become
● they must develop a sense of intimacy, which refers to close relationships in
which partners are open, caring and trusting
● they need to discover their sexual identity
We assume that identity consists of at least two aspects
● self-concept
○ how we see ourselves: who we are and who we want to become
● self-esteem
○ the extent to which we value this self-concept
Early adolescents tend to be more troubled by day-to-day fluctuations in
self-esteem than older adolescents, since they are more likely to base their
self-esteem on how people in their environment react to their behavior and
appearance.
Imaginary audience: teens often feel as if everyone is looking at them, as if they
are performing for an attentive audience
Personal fable: teens often believe that their experiences are unique and that no
one feels, or has ever felt the way they do
Two things are important for adolescents trying to develop a stable self-concept
and self-esteem
● the approval of their social environment
● the possibility of influencing that environment
Early adolescents often have one or two best friends or buddies and also belong
to a group of friends - known as a clique - who interact frequently both online and
off. Cliques are usually made up of two to ten members. Girls typically organize
themselves into cliques at around age eleven, boys at about thirteen. Girls are
more likely to use cliques to share intimate information, whereas boys tend to
focus more on games and sports.
How is it related to perceptions of love and verbal conflict?
Adolescents’ romantic relationships differ from those of adults in several ways
● adolescents usually live with their caretakers and they do not have the
opportunity to live together with their romantic partner
● adolescents’ romantic relationships are often short-lived
● adolescents have different perceptions of what a romantic relationship
should look like
Triangular theory of love: intimacy, passion and commitment
Research question
● How does adolescent sexting relate to perceptions of intimacy, passion and
commitment as defined by the triangular theory of love?
Adolescents who engage in sexting were more likely to experience digital forms
of control and monitoring by their romantic partner. Women were more likely to
experience victimization than men.
Discussion
● higher feelings of sexual attraction, passion and sexual arousal towards a
partner are found to be related to their engagement in sexting
○ adolescents who perceive their romantic relationships as more
passionate, might be motivated to use sexting as a way to explore
sexual behaviors
● sexting is associated with a higher self-reported sexual satisfaction
compared to non-sexters
● there are no significant associations between perceptions of emotional
intimacy or commitment and engagement in sexting behavior
● higher perceptions of verbal conflict within romantic relationships were
significantly associated with adolescents’ engagement in sexting
● prevention and educational efforts on safer sexting behavior could
○ integrate messaging on healthy relationships and dating violence
prevention and vice versa
○ focus on strategies for adolescents to negotiate safer sexting
behaviors and discuss strategies on how to refuse to send a sexting
message
Valkenburg Chapter 6: Adolescents
Generation digital
We divide adolescents into two age groups: early adolescence (ages 12-15) and late
adolescence (ages 16-19). There are two reasons for this decision
, ● puberty is thought to begin at approximately eleven years of age and to
conclude around fifteen
● this segmentation decision is pragmatic
○ much of the research on teens and media use seems to focus on one
or the other of these two groups
Early adolescence
Puberty, the period between the ages of eleven and sixteen, is characterized by
intense physical changes that, in turn, affect adolescents’ emotions and cognition.
Around the start of puberty, gray matter starts to decline in volume. Gray matter is
responsible for information processing. Unlike gray matter, white matter increases
in volume throughout late childhood and adolescence. White matter consists of
the pathways that connect neurons to one another.
The prefrontal cortex of adolescents is not structurally immature even though a
lot of people think it is. The maturity of the prefrontal cortex appears to depend
on adolescents’ motivation to keep their appointments, to structure their
thoughts and plan their activities.
Early adolescents no longer take the world for what it is. They are quick to find
something implausible. In addition to adolescents’ increasingly abstract thinking
and problem solving skills, their metacognitive skills improve significantly during
this period. Metacognitive skills are skills to evaluate one’s own thoughts.
Moderate discrepancy hypothesis: children and teens are most interested in
media content that departs moderately from their level of cognitive and
social-emotional development. Speed and variety are the norm in this age group.
This may explain why apps such as Snapchat and Vine have become so popular
with this age group.
Beyond variety and speed, early adolescents are looking for plausible content in
entertainment media content. Story lines should be logical, characters should fit
within the context of adolescents’ social and cultural background, and historical
and situational factors should be true to life.
Early adolescents become interested in complex forms of humor involving irony,
sarcasm and cynicism. In addition, early adolescents begin to prefer spontaneous,
witty forms of humor to the ready-made jokes and riddles popular with children.
As children move into early adolescence, they show an increased interest in horror
movies, vampires and high-risk sports. Why might this occur?
● there is an increase in the activity of neural axons, which use dopamine
○ dopamine is thought to co-occur with feelings of enjoyment and to
reinforce a tendency to do certain activities
, ○ dopamine also plays a role in the desire to embark on new or
exciting adventures
The changes in the dopamine system during adolescence may lead teens to act
more impulsively than children or adults and to show a greater tendency toward
risk taking.
Early adolescence is also a time when teens exhibit an increased interest in
thrilling media content (vampires, extreme sports or stunts and horror movies)
To gain autonomy, teens have to develop three key social-emotional subgoals
● they need to develop a stable identity, a reasonably firm sense of who they
are and who they would like to become
● they must develop a sense of intimacy, which refers to close relationships in
which partners are open, caring and trusting
● they need to discover their sexual identity
We assume that identity consists of at least two aspects
● self-concept
○ how we see ourselves: who we are and who we want to become
● self-esteem
○ the extent to which we value this self-concept
Early adolescents tend to be more troubled by day-to-day fluctuations in
self-esteem than older adolescents, since they are more likely to base their
self-esteem on how people in their environment react to their behavior and
appearance.
Imaginary audience: teens often feel as if everyone is looking at them, as if they
are performing for an attentive audience
Personal fable: teens often believe that their experiences are unique and that no
one feels, or has ever felt the way they do
Two things are important for adolescents trying to develop a stable self-concept
and self-esteem
● the approval of their social environment
● the possibility of influencing that environment
Early adolescents often have one or two best friends or buddies and also belong
to a group of friends - known as a clique - who interact frequently both online and
off. Cliques are usually made up of two to ten members. Girls typically organize
themselves into cliques at around age eleven, boys at about thirteen. Girls are
more likely to use cliques to share intimate information, whereas boys tend to
focus more on games and sports.
