A Latent Profile Analysis of the Consensual and Non-Consensual Sexting Experiences among Canadian Adolescents.

Different patterns of sexting behaviors were examined to provide a more nuanced understanding of the context in which sexting occurs among adolescents. Participants were 1,000 Canadian adolescents (50.2% girls) between 12 and 18 years ( = 15.21,  = 2.00) who completed measures of sexting, cyber bullying and victimization, problematic social media use, self-regulation, and demographics. Contrary to our hypotheses, three latent profiles of sexting represented the frequency of sexting rather than whether the sexting was consensual versus non-consensual or with a partner versus non-partner. Participants in the and profiles representing one fifth of youth, reported less self-regulation, experienced more cyber victimization, and engaged in more cyber bullying and problematic social media use than those in the profile. Our findings support the normalcy approach to education, which considers some sexting among healthy developmental behaviors.