The Pornography Craving Questionnaire: Psychometric Properties

Abstract

Despite the prevalence of pornography use, and recent conceptualization of problematic use as an addiction, we could find no published scale to measure craving for pornography. Therefore, we conducted three studies employing young male pornography users to develop and evaluate such a questionnaire. In Study 1, we had participants rate their agreement with 20 potential craving items after reading a control script or a script designed to induce craving to watch pornography. We dropped eight items because of low endorsement. In Study 2, we revised both the questionnaire and cue exposure stimuli and then evaluated several psychometric properties of the modified questionnaire. Item loadings from a principal components analysis, a high internal consistency reliability coefficient, and a moderate mean inter-item correlation supported interpreting the 12 revised items as a single scale. Correlations of craving scores with preoccupation with pornography, sexual history, compulsive internet use, and sensation seeking provided support for convergent validity, criterion validity, and discriminant validity, respectively. The enhanced imagery script did not impact reported craving; however, more frequent users of pornography reported higher craving than less frequent users regardless of script condition. In Study 3, craving scores demonstrated good one-week test-retest reliability and predicted the number of times participants used pornography during the following week. This questionnaire could be applied in clinical settings to plan and evaluate therapy for problematic users of pornography and as a research tool to assess the prevalence and contextual triggers of craving among different types of pornography users.

Should compulsive sexual behavior be considered an addiction?

“…Similarly, craving appears relevant to the assessment and treatment of CSB. Among young adult men, craving for pornography correlated positively with psychological/psychiatric symptoms, sexual compulsivity and severity of cybersex addiction [37][38][39][40][41]. A potential role for craving in predicting relapse or clinical outcomes for CSB patients has not yet been examined.…”

Clinical Characteristics of Men Interested in Seeking Treatment for Use of Pornography

“…Although watching pornography is a healthy sexual outlet for many individuals (Hald & Malamuth, 2008), some people report having difficulty managing their behavior. For these individuals, excessive/problematic use of pornography is characterized by craving, diminished self-control, social or occupational impairment, and use of sexually explicit material to cope with anxiety or dysphoric mood (Kor et al., 2014; Kraus, Meshberg-Cohen, Martino, Quinones, & Potenza, 2015; Kraus, Potenza, Martino, & Grant, 2015; Kraus & Rosenberg, 2014). Problematic use of pornography is frequently reported by those seeking treatment for compulsive sexual behavior/hypersexuality (de Tubino Scanavino et al., 2013; Kraus, Potenza, et al., 2015; Morgenstern et al., 2011).…”

On the correlates of passion for screen-based behaviors: The case of impulsivity and the problematic and non-problematic Facebook use and TV series watching

“…However, the two constructs can be separated based on one's love for the activity: in the case of obsessive passion, engagement in the activity is still motivated by the love one has for that particular activity, whereas this component is missing regarding addictions (Vallerand, 2015). Furthermore, addictions are focused on aspects such as tolerance, withdrawal, mood modification, or relapse or craving (Griffiths, 2005;Kraus & Rosenberg, 2014) which are theoretically independent from passion towards the given activity. Additionally, in line with previous research (Vallerand & Verner-Filion, 2014), we hypothesize that obsessive passion could be seen as a potential precursor of problematic use.…”