In the last decade, international study attention to the problem of risk of sexual behavior in adolescents has grown. Some research has shown emotion dysregulation to be an important predictors of forbidding outcomes for example alcohol and drugs abuse or risky sexual behavior.

The aims of this study are analyze emotion dysregulation in adolescents and their belief regarding sex working of adolescents.

The sample is composed by 123 participants (58 male adolescents, and 65 female adolescents, they is 14–15 years). All participants completed a self-report questionnaire, Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. Them, participants responded to questions on prostitution.

Frequency analysis showed that 78% of participants believe that prostitution is wrong; 1.4% of adolescents believe that the voluntary prostitution is not wrong; 2.4% believe that prostitution is not wrong if it can economically help their parents; and 4.9% believe that prostitution is wrong only if the customer is an adult. Regarding emotion dysregulation, test t analysis highlights some differences between male and female. The female presents difficulties (P = 0.025) to strategies respect male adolescents and they manifest a tendency to significative difference in impulse (P = 0.061) and goals (P = 0.067).

These preliminary results show that females may experience greater difficulties to take functional strategies to regulate emotions and could risk adopting risky sexual behavior such as prostitution.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.