Emotional Competence and Sexting among University Students

The aim of this paper is to study the relationship between sexting and emotional competence.  A total of 440 students from the University of Mostar took part in this research, aged from 18 to 25 years (M=21.32, SD=1.84). The participants completed the Scale of Sexting Behaviour, and The Emotional Skills and Competence Questionnaire. The results of the study showed that 23.64% students had participated in receiving and sending sexually suggestive or provocative contents, whilst 10.23% had openly publicized such content.  Young men participated to a greater extent in sexting in comparison with young women, and were less successful in recognition and understanding emotions, as well as in regulating and managing emotions.  The data analysis revealed that the participants with lower results on the scale of emotional competence were involved more often in receiving, sending or publishing sexually suggestive or provocative contents. Sex and the ability to regulate and manage emotions were statistically significant predictors of receiving and sending sexually explicit content.  These predictors, alongside the ability to understand emotions, proved to be significant in prediction of publication of sexually explicit contents.  The results indicate the importance of emotional competence in explaining and prevention of sexting in young men and women.