The title for this Special Section is Contemporary Mobile Technology and Child and Adolescent Development, edited by Zheng Yan and Lennart Hardell Associations Between Sexting Behaviors and Sexual Behaviors Among Mobile Phone-Owning Teens in Los Angeles Eric Rice, Jaih Craddock, Mary Hemler, and Joshua Rusow University of Southern California Aaron Plant and Jorge Montoya Sentient Research Timothy Kordic Los Angeles Unified School District The implications of teen sexting for healthy development continue to concern parents, academics, and the gen- eral public. Using a probability sample of high school students (N = 1,208) aged 12–18, the prevalence of sex- ting, associations with sexting, and associations between sexing and sexual activity were assessed. Seventeen percent both sent and received sexts, and 24% only received sexts. Sending and receiving sexts were positively associated with each other and both behaviors were associated with having peers who sext. Lifetime reports of sexual intercourse, anal sex, oral sex, and recent unprotected sex were positively associated with reports of texting 300 or more times per day, only receiving sexts, and both sending and receiving sexts. Sexting—the sending and receiving of sexually explicit images and messages over mobile phones— among teens has become a major concern to many parents and the larger American public (Living- stone & Smith, 2014). In part, these fears are driven by complex legal issues and the loss of privacy and reputation that too easily can accompany teen sex- ting. However, these fears also are driven by con- cerns over the connections among teen sexting, pregnancy, and sexual health. This article presents new data on teen sexting from a probability sample of high school students and examines associations between sexting behaviors and sexual behaviors. For this study, we expanded on prior research by broadening sexual risk behaviors to include lifetime sexual intercourse, oral sex, anal sex, and failure to use a condom at last sexual encounter. Because research on sexting is so new, we also provide exploratory associations between sexting and exces- sive texting and the sexting behaviors of peers. Researchers have found rates of sexting to vary by population, definition of sexting, and sampling methodology. In a recent systematic review of the literature, Klettke, Hallford, and Mellor (2014) found 12 studies that featured adolescents younger than 18 years old, six of which used random sam- pling strategies. When sexting was defined as send- ing sexual text messages or photos, the prevalence of sexting averaged 10.2%, with a 95% confidence interval ranging from 1.77 to 18.63. When sexting was defined as sending only photo content, the average prevalence was similar (11.96%), as was the 95% confidence interval [5.06, 18.85]. For the present study, sexting was defined as sending sex- ual text messages or photos to enable comparisons to earlier studies among adolescents in Los Angeles (Rice et al., 2012). It seems clear that sexting among teens is associ- ated with being sexually active (Houck et al., 2014; Rice et al., 2012, 2014; Temple et al., 2012; Ybarra & Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Eric Rice, Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, Univer- sity of Southern California, 1150 S. Olive St. Suite 1400, Los Angeles, CA 90015. Electronic mail may be sent to ericr@usc.edu. © 2017 The Authors Child Development © 2017 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved. 0009-3920/2017/xxxx-xxxx DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12837 Child Development, xxxx 2017, Volume 00, Number 0, Pages 1–8