Nowadays, many people use technology to find sex partners and to interact sexually with others, sending sexually-explicit photos and other content. But what might such behaviors reveal about a person’s mental health?
Recently, the Journal of Sexual Medicine published a study on digital sexual behavior in a group of military veterans. Previous research suggests that veterans who use social media to search for sex partners are at higher risk for mental health issues like hypersexuality, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
In particular, the researchers analyzed two types of digital sexual behaviors:
- Sexting involves sending sexually-explicit texts to another person.
- Posting sexual images (PSI) involves posting sexually-explicit images or videos of oneself on the internet.
The participants were 283 post-deployment, post 9/11 military veterans in the United States. Through telephone interviews and online surveys, they provided information about their sexual history and mental health. The paper did not state the numbers of males and females.
About 53% of the participants had sexted at some point in their lives. Sixteen percent had posted sexual images to the internet, and 31% had never sexted or posted sexual images.
The researchers found that both sexting and PSI behaviors were more common among males, younger people, and those with lower levels of employment and less education.
They also concluded that neither sexting nor PSI was associated with psychopathology.
However, posting sexual images was linked to impulsivity and hypersexuality, according to mental health assessments. Sexting was not.
“These results suggest that PSI and sexting may represent normative behaviors,” the authors said.
They noted that sexting behaviors may occur when people have just begun new relationships and may be “associated with feelings of wellbeing rather than psychopathology.”
The authors explained that PSI behaviors could be seen as “ego-dystonic.” People might impulsively post sexual images of themselves on the internet and later regret doing so.
Further research, especially in civilian populations, was recommended. It may be useful to study the reasons people sext or post sexual images of themselves online as well as the possibility that PSI is a symptom of hypersexuality in veterans.
The authors suggested more research on the content of posted images. “PSI may also represent a diverse set of behaviors with varying degrees of nudity or sexual explicitness and varying levels of privacy (eg, open websites vs members-only websites),” they explained.
“Taken together, this study represents [a] foray into understanding new and possibly detrimental behaviors facilitated by recent changes in digital technologies and their usages,” the authors wrote.
Resources
The Journal of Sexual Medicine
Turban, Jack L. MD, MHS, et al.
“Posting Sexually Explicit Images or Videos of Oneself Online Is Associated With Impulsivity and Hypersexuality but Not Measures of Psychopathology in a Sample of US Veterans”
(Full-text. Published online: November 7, 2019)
https://www.jsm.jsexmed.org/article/S1743-6095(19)31447-X/fulltext