A triangulation study of young Women's motivations for sending nudes to men.

Women frequently send sexualized nude images to men (i.e., nudes), but women's motivations for sending nudes are unclear because there are methodological limitations in the ways that cyber sexual activity has been defined and measured. To address these gaps in the literature, we employed a mixed method triangulation design to assess young women's motivations for sending nudes to men, and how motivations compare when measured qualitatively and quantitatively. Across our qualitative and quantitative data, we found that women endorsed a plethora of motivations for sending nudes to men—far more than any one approach captured. The open-ended responses revealed positive sexual motives otherwise missing from the quantitative scales, which tended to overrepresent negative motivations. We also identified several critical discrepancies between endorsement of similar motivations in the qualitative versus quantitative responses, especially when it came to the idea of sending nudes for fun. Based on these findings, we suggest future researchers consider using more specific, and less stigmatizing language when assessing women's motivations for sending nudes. • Women endorsed many motives for sending nudes to men—far more than any one qualitative or quantitative approach captured. • The motives, violence perpetration, drug/alcohol use, and proving something were unique to the quantitative responses. • The positive motives, sexual exploration, felt cute, and foreplay were uniquely identified in the qualitative responses. • Endorsement frequency of comparable motivations differed in the qualitative versus quantitative responses. • Some women sent nudes to gain predictability/control, consistent with a nuanced application of objectification theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]