Dear Readers of Savage Love,

I am doing a study on sexting in Canada and the United States of America as part of my doctoral dissertation research at Adler University, Vancouver Campus. The research focuses on sexting, which is defined in this study as the exchange of nude images through Instant Messaging. Participants will be asked to reflect on their sexting activities or lack thereof between the ages of 12-18 in order to access rates, knowledge of consequences, and attitudes toward sexting.

I want to understand how rates of sexting are influenced by knowledge of potential consequences and attitudes about sexting. I will be asking you, as an adult participant, to reflect on your sexting behaviours or lack thereof as a youth. The survey should take approximately 10-15 minutes. Please do not respond directly or comment on this post, to protect your privacy. Please do not publicly name anyone you are suggesting this study to, to protect their privacy. Please do not tell me or anyone else that you have passed this link along to someone who you may think would be interested in participating, to protect their privacy.

There are several criteria required in order to participate in this study:

1) You are between or of the ages 19-22

2) You have been a Canadian or permanent resident of Canada or the United States since age 12

3) You had access to a cell phone at some point between ages 12-18

4) You have completed high school in Canada or the United States of America

5) Comfortable sharing about sexting, whether or not you have participated in it

6) Comfortable answering questions about your knowledge of legal consequences of sexting as a youth

If you meet the criteria laid out above and would like to participate in the survey, please follow this link to the study: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/L9KSYML

I will have no way of knowing who has accessed the study link or who has participated in the study, nor will I have any way of knowing who has passed the link along, or who has received the link from others passing it along.

Some information about you, such as your age, gender, ethnicity, and the country you live in will be asked so I can better describe the group of people participating in the study. You will answer the demographic information and survey questions on the same page. Your name will not be connected to your data and I will receive no notification of who has chosen to participate.

Your participation in this study will be completely voluntary, and you can take your data out of the study before you submit your responses. In order for your data to be added to the study, you must answer all questions asked in the survey. If you choose to submit your data, because it is anonymous, your data cannot be taken out of the study after this point. After the study is done, I will post the results of the study on my website at www.psyservices.ca/dissertation.

Please contact myself, the student researcher, Sarah Patrick, at spatrick@my.adler.edu for more information about this study. Sarah Patrick is doing the study under the supervision of Dr. Michael Mandrusiak, PsyD (Faculty Advisor), Adler University.

Thank you,

Sarah Patrick, MA

PsyD student, Adler University