Background: Sexting has garnered interest from the public and the scientific community given its ever-increasing presence in adolescents' lives. However, analysis varies depending on the baseline study used. This calls for a standardised sexting instrument that addresses scientific evidence-based recommendations. The primary aim of this study was to develop and validate the structure of a questionnaire that includes the various sexting behaviours and motives.
Method: The sample comprised 1,362 students (51.1% female; 12-18 years old). Participants were randomly split into two halves, controlling for the gender variable (n=681), and exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed.
Results: Validity of the Sexting Behaviours and Motives Questionnaire (SBM-Q) was confirmed, along with the suitability of the factor structure, internal consistency, and divergent validity. This was also reported by gender. Six dimensions were identified: sending, reasons for sending, receiving, forwarding, victim of forwarding, and reasons for forwarding.
Conclusions: The SBM-Q presents good psychometric properties, providing a detailed and consolidated overview of the behaviours that adolescents might engage in when sexting as well as the context in which it occurs.