Teachers' discursive constructions of adolescent sexting, consent and gender.

Seymour-Smith, S, Rousaki, A, Marriott, M and Kitson-Boyce, R, 2025. Teachers' discursive constructions of adolescent sexting, consent and gender. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 35 (1): e70002. ISSN 1052-9284

Preview

Text 2294489_a3202_Seymour_Smith.pdf - Published version Download (2MB) | Preview

Abstract

Sexting is the exchange of sexually suggestive content through technological means (Van Ouytsel et al., 2017). Despite being tasked with addressing such incidents in schools, teachers are underrepresented in sexting research. The present study explores teachers’ discursive constructions of sexting, consent, and gender using Critical Discursive Psychology, analysing 30 interviews with educators and safeguarding staff. The first key finding uncovers the interpretative repertoire of “Sexting as a threat”. This repertoire showcases the gendered positions teachers assign adolescents to, positioning “Boys as oppressors; girls as victims of sexting”, with girls being simultaneously constructed as sexting to attract boys’ attention through the “Girls as the validation-seeking Other” position. Regarding consent, we explicate three repertoires: “Consent as an oxymoron in relation to non-consensual distribution”, “Consent as illegal”, and “Coercion as a power imbalance”. We contextualise and discuss these findings within the socio-political discursive terrain. We highlight their ideological implications and the need to initiate emancipatory positions and discussions regarding inclusive sexting education.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology
Creators:	Seymour-Smith, S., Rousaki, A., Marriott, M. and Kitson-Boyce, R.
Publisher:	Wiley
Date:	2025
Volume:	35
Number:	1
ISSN:	1052-9284
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1002/casp.70002 DOI 2294489 Other
Rights:	© 2024 The Author(s). Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Jeremy Silvester
Date Added:	22 Nov 2024 12:29
Last Modified:	31 Mar 2025 08:09
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/52640

Actions (login required)

Edit View

Statistics

Views

Downloads