THE USAGE OF ONLINE MOBILE DATING APPLICATIONS, SEXUAL PERMISSIVENESS & ITS ASSOCIATIONS WITH SEX GUILT, SELF-ESTEEM & ONLINE SEXUAL HARASSMENT

Abstract

The advent of technology and liberalisation of societal views on sex have ushered in a new era of dating. Online Mobile Dating Applications (OMDA) have taken over traditional methods of dating by becoming popular avenues used to form romantic and sexual connections. Data gleaned from previous research on OMDA usage revealed various inadvertent repercussions on one’s sexual and mental health. This study thus explored possible repercussions of OMDA usage and sexual permissiveness on sexual and mental health related variables – sex guilt, self-esteem, and online sexual harassment. As hypothesised, OMDA usage was associated with higher sexual permissiveness (U = 9430.5, z = 3.84, p < 0.001), lower levels of sex guilt (U = 4905.0, z = -4.00, p < 0.001) and higher levels of online sexual harassment (U = 8610.5, z = 2.61, p =.009). Relatedly, sexual permissiveness was negatively correlated with sex guilt (rs (244) = -.52, p = .013), and positively correlated with online sexual harassment (rs (247) = .16, p = .013). Contrary to hypotheses, self-esteem yielded no significant effects. This study contributed theoretically to the budding OMDA literature by delineating the effects of modern technology-facilitated dating on an Asian population’s sexual and mental health.