Revisiting the Association between Pornography Use and Risky Sexual Behaviors: The Role of Early Exposure to Pornography and Sexual Sensation Seeking

Abstract

Among the suggested problems and harms associated with widespread pornography use among young people, risky sexual behaviors have been frequently mentioned. To further explore this public health concern, this article analyzed sexual sensation seeking (SSS) as a potential confounder of the association between pornography use and sexual risks using data collected in 2010 from a population-based sample of young Croatian adults aged 18 to 25 (n = 1,005). Significant, but small, correlations were found between the indicators of pornography use (age at first exposure, frequency of use in the past 12 months, and personal importance of pornography) and sexual risk taking. However, in a multivariate analysis, only age at first exposure to pornography remained a significant, albeit weak, predictor of sexual risk taking among both women and men. SSS, defined as the dispositional tendency toward the impulsive pursuit of sexual arousal and stimulation, neither confounded nor moderated this association. Overall, the findings do not support the notion that pornography use is substantially associated with sexual risk taking among young adults, but suggest that early exposure to sexually explicit material and high SSS are additive risk factors for sexual risk taking.

Self-Perceived Effects of Pornography Consumption in a Sample of Indonesian University Students

“…However, the additional variance explained by pornography-related variables on self-perceived effects was somewhat modest after controlling for included non-pornography-related variables. These findings are consistent with previous recent studies in this area which have also found that the additional explained variance of pornography-related variables on the outcomes investigated has been modest when other relevant non-pornography variables have been controlled for (Hald, Kuyper, et al, 2013;Peter & Valkenburg, 2011;SinkoviK c et al, 2013;Wright, 2013;Wright & Randall, 2012). This suggests that self-perceived effects of pornography consumption may be as much, or more, associated with factors other than pornographyrelated variables such as gender, sensation seeking, sexual attitude, and sexual behavior.…”

“…Various previous research on pornography has consistently demonstrated that pornography-related variables predict levels of pornography consumption (see also Hald, 2006;SinkoviK c, Štulhofer, & BoL ziK c, 2013). Therefore, we find it plausible that pornography-related variables such as age of first exposure, acceptance of pornography, perceived realism of pornography, and pornography consumption will significantly predict self-reported and self-perceived effects of pornography consumption in this study.…”

“…Therefore, we find it plausible that pornography-related variables such as age of first exposure, acceptance of pornography, perceived realism of pornography, and pornography consumption will significantly predict self-reported and self-perceived effects of pornography consumption in this study. Nonetheless, more recent research in the area of pornography and sexual behaviors also suggests that when controlling for a number of individual, cultural, and contextual covariates, the contribution of pornography-related variables to the outcome variable studied may be substantially reduced (Hald , 2013;Peter & Valkenburg, 2011;SinkoviK c et al, 2013;Wright, 2013;Wright & Randall, 2012). Consequently, as this reduced contribution may also apply to self-reported and self-perceived effects of pornography consumption, we find it important to assess the contribution of pornography-related variables to self-perceived effects of pornography consumption only after the inclusion of other relevant non-pornography-related study variables.…”

“…On this basis we included sociodemographic predictors (i.e., gender, age, relationship status, religiosity; Morgan, 2011;Peter & Valkenburg, 2011;Traeen, Nilsen, & Stigum, 2006), personality characteristics (i.e., sensation seeking; Hald, Kuyper, et al, 2013;Luder et al, 2011;Peter & Valkenburg, 2011;SinkoviK c et al, 2013), sexual background predictors (i.e., sexual attitudes and sexual behaviors; Hald, Kuyper, et al, 2013;Luder et al, 2011), parental involvement (SinkoviK c et al, 2013), and Internet use (Morgan, 2011).…”

Patterns of consumption of cyber-pornography amongst women in Mumbai

“…However, a greater understanding is required to absorb what factors accelerate consumption rates and what are the reasons that consumption of pornography in women is greater after marriage. Further studies and research interventions are required in order to closely understand the patterns of consumptions of cyber pornographic content in women and how it is addictive and impacting the relationships in real life [22].…”