The role of PID-5 Brief Form personality domains in predicting sexting behaviors in a sample of Italian emerging adults

Introduction: sexting refers to a behavior characterized by the exchange of sexually explicit contents, also called “sexts” (such as videos, pictures, and text messages), via smartphone or Internet. Particularly prevalent in adolescents and young adults, sexting can occur in different forms such as normal behavior to risky and aggressive behavior. Recent studies have investigated the role of individual personality traits as predictors of different kinds of sexting. However, few studies have explored pathological personality traits on the different kinds of sexting in emerging adulthood. Aim: the main goal of this study was to investigate in a sample of Italian emerging adults the extent to which the five personality trait domains measured with the PID-5 Brief Form (Negative Affectivity, Detachment, Antagonism, Disinhibition and Psychoticism) predict, controlling for age and sex, different kinds of sexting behaviors: aggravated sexting (sharing sexts of someone else without permission; sexting under pressure), risky sexting (sexting during substance use and with strangers; sexting for emotion regulation). Methods: The sample included 876 Italian young adults (69.1% females) aged 18 to 29 years (Mage=23.8; SDage=2.56) recruited through snowball sampling and who have completed an online survey. Participants were asked to complete the Personality Inventory for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders–5 Brief Form (PID-5 BF) and the Sexting Behaviors Questionnaire (SBQ). Results: Poisson regression analyses showed that the two forms of aggravated sexting (i.e., sharing sexts without permission, sexting under pressure) were positively predicted by Detachment (OR=1.08, p=.002; OR=1.06, p=.03), Antagonism (OR=1.08, p=.002; OR=1.12, p< .001) and Disinhibition (OR=1.08, p=.002; OR=1.10, p=.001). Risky sexting during substance uses and with strangers was negatively predicted by Negative Affectivity (OR=0.94, p=.03) and positively predicted by Antagonism (OR=1.09, p=.004) and Disinhibition (OR=1.12, p< .001). Risky sexting for emotion regulation was positively predicted by Antagonism (OR=1.09, p=.003), Disinhibition (OR=1.09, p=.002) and age (OR=1.01, p=.03). Discussion: This work provides a broader understanding about the association between personality domains and sexting, showing that only some PID-5 personality trait domains predicted different sexting behaviors. These results have implications for further research and the implementation of preventive interventions targeting young adults.