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alp227

(32,047 posts) Tue Jan 7, 2014, 04:43 AM Jan 2014

Sexting common, linked to sex among high-risk youth

(Reuters Health) - More than one in five middle-school aged children with behavioral or emotional problems has recently engaged in sexting, according to a new study.

What's more, researchers found those who reported sexting in the past six months were four to seven times more likely to also engage in other sexual behaviors, compared to adolescents who said they didn't sext.

"We know early adolescents are using mobile phones and all forms of technology more and more and we know that early adolescence is a time when people become engaged in sexual activity," Christopher Houck said. "So how those two connect is an important area of study."

Houck is the study's lead author and a staff psychologist at Rhode Island Hospital's Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center in Providence.

full: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/06/us-sexting-common-linked-to-sex-among-hi-idUSBREA050G820140106

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Sexting common, linked to sex among high-risk youth (Original Post) alp227 Jan 2014 OP

Respectfully, it seems like they are equating correlation with causation.... Demo_Chris Jan 2014 #1

Demo_Chris

(6,234 posts)

1. Respectfully, it seems like they are equating correlation with causation....

Reply to alp227 (Original post)

Tue Jan 7, 2014, 08:36 AM

Jan 2014

We are talking here about young and pre-teens. It's hardly shocking (or even interesting) to discover that children who engaged in one of the most innocent and risk free forms of sexual expression were also more likely to engage in other forms as well, or that kids who had not yet developed an interest in these things did not participate in them. Along the same lines, stating that 20% of kids with behavioral or emotional problems also engaged in 'sexting' isn't saying a whole lot. Those same at-risk kids had also watched TV, listened to music, eaten food, and gotten into arguments with friends and enemies -- only it wasn't 20%, it was 100%.

But that's hardly headline worthy.

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