Relationship between the use of social media and the bodily self esteem as sexting practices predictors among 14 to 18 years old adolescents in Barranquilla city.

The objective of this investigation was to evaluate the existing relationship between the use of social media and the bodily self esteem, as predictors in the sexting practice among 14-18 years old adolescents living in Barranquilla city. An associative strategy, empirical-analytical based study with a transversal predictive design was implemented. The participants were 405 adolescents: 39.5% (n=160) were men and 60.5% (n=245) were women, with an average age of 16.1 years (sd=1.4). 3 instruments were applied: Bodily Self Esteem Scale- (BSES, Peris & Maganto, 2016), Internet and Social Media Adolescent-Addiction Risk Scale (ISM-ARS, Peris, Maganto & Garaigordobil, 2018) and Sexting Scale (Peris & Maganto, 2016). The results show significant scores on the addiction-symptom variable which was higher among over 16 years old adolescents in comparison with the ones that were between 14 and 16 years old; the geek trait variable showed differences between sexes, significantly greater among women than men; meanwhile, age and socioeconomic stratum showed no significant difference. On the other hand, the physical attraction variable showed direct relationship with erotic sexting and the sexting global scale. Lastly, the social-use variable is the one with greater predictive weight alongside physical attraction, predicting sexting practices at 39%. In conclusion, the greater the social-use of social media and the greater the body satisfaction, greater the tendency towards sexting practices; meaning that, adolescent who feels most satisfied with their body makes greater use of social media to share photos not only with sexual or erotic content multimedia but also of an explicit sexual nature.