The impact of social media literacy and behavioural intension toward sexting prevention competencies among social media users in Malaysia

In an era dominated by digital communication which is social media platforms, the study explores the significant concern of sexting, aiming to contribute to the development of effective prevention strategies. This study aims to determine the level of sexting prevention competencies among social media users and to identify the impact of social media literacy and behavioural intention toward sexting prevention competencies. The primary objective of the study is to determine the mediating impact of behavioural intention towards relationship between social media literacy and sexting prevention competencies. The study utilises a comprehensive multistage cluster sampling process to guarantee a wide range of participants, which accurately represents the heterogeneous environment of social media users in Malaysia. In order to achieve the research objectives, a questionnaire was developed as a main tool for data collection. The questionnaire consists of 99 items which are divided into three (3) variables (social media literacy, behavioural intention, and sexting prevention competencies). A total of 412 respondents who are social media users and randomly selected from five states which are Perlis, Selangor, Melaka, Pahang and Sarawak. Statistical Packages for the Social Science for Windows version 28 (SPSS 28.0) and AMOS 28 for Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) are used to process and analyse the data results.