On line grooming and emotional problems in Argentinean adolescents

SANTIAGO RESETT

Atenas

Conferencia; XIX Biennal Conference of the European Association for Developmental Psychology.; 2019

European Association for Developmental Psychology.

Grooming is when a minor suffers from sexual contact by an adult. Today with new technologies, such as cell phones, this phenomenon has become more difficult to monitor by adults. Thus, online grooming is an important risk factor for the mental health of children and adolescents. Therefore, the objective of the present work was to determine the levels of online grooming and its association with gender, age, depression and anxiety in a sample of Argentinean adolescents. An intentional sample of 522 students who were studying middle school in schools in Paraná, Entre Ríos, Argentina was constituted (60% females; average age = 14.2 years). Participants completed: Gamez-Guadix et al Online Sexual Solicitation and Interaction with Adults Questionnaire, Kovacs Depression Inventory, and Rosenberg Anxiety Scale. Results suggested that in the last year at least 19% had suffered from some online grooming behavior at least in one occasion. The most common form was to receive sexual pictures of an adult (11%). More males than females suffered from grooming. Also, age was associated with more grooming since adolescents over 14 years of age suffered it more. When carrying out multiple linear regressions to predict online grooming behavior with sex, age, scores in depression and anxiety as predictor, it was observed that a variance of 17% of grooming was predicted, with the significant variables being male (β = -.22, t = 3.37, p