The Use of Online Pornography as Compensation for Loneliness and Lack of Social Ties Among Israeli Adolescents

Abstract

The Internet provides people with the ability to act anonymously, which may lead them to feel secure and to release them from many of their inhibitions. In many cases, this leads them to participate in cybersex activities and online pornography. This study examined the psychological factors behind young people's sexual behavior online. Participants comprised 713 Israeli adolescents (383 boys and 330 girls) aged 14 to 18 years. Our results indicated that the impact of loneliness on online sexual activity and frequency of pornography use was dependent on participants' attachment orientations. Engagement in online sexual activities and use of pornography were high among anxiously attached individuals regardless of the extent of their loneliness. Loneliness was found to increase the use of online sexual activities and pornography, only among secure and anxiously avoidant individuals. Online sexual activity and pornography were also found to be related to offline sexual activity. The results are described and discussed.

Understanding and predicting profiles of compulsive sexual behavior among adolescents

“…From different reasons, people who feel lonely may also seek compensation for lack of warmth, closeness, and sexual intimacy. Research has shown that PU, which relates to CSB, serves as a compensation for insecure attachment (anxiety and avoidance) and loneliness (Efrati & Amichai-Hamburger, 2018). Therefore, it is not surprising that individuals with CSB were more anxious with respect to attachment, lonelier, excessive use of pornography, and online sexual activities than sexual fantasizers and abstaining adolescents.…”

“…After computing scores for all the items, adolescents who had engaged in any of these behaviors were coded 1, whereas those who had not were coded 0. The measure was translated to Hebrew by Efrati and Amichai-Hamburger (2018).…”

“…To account for skewness, we used a specifically tailored analysis (see “Results” section). The measure was translated to Hebrew by Efrati and Amichai-Hamburger (2018).…”

“…CSB may serve as compensation for inadequate and unsatisfactory social ties, in which needs for warmth, care, and affection are not met, as supported by previous research (Gilliland, Blue Star, Hansen, & Carpenter, 2015; Zapf, Greiner, & Carroll, 2008), which revealed a correlation between anxious and avoidant attachment styles and CSB symptoms among adults. In addition, in a recent study on adolescents, Efrati and Amichai-Hamburger (2018) have shown that pornography use (PU), which relates to CSB, serves as a compensation for insecure attachment.…”

Pornography Use in Adolescents and Its Clinical Implications

“…In this vein, Nieh et al [21] evaluated the influence of factors such as peer behaviors and parenting style on adolescent pornography use trajectories, finding that parental monitoring protected adolescents from pornography use. Relatedly, Efrati et al [25] highlighted that the impact of loneliness on the frequency of pornography use may be dependent on individuals' attachment orientations. In terms of victimization, the possible association between the use of pornography and violence and sexual aggression and coercion, as well as the problematic use of pornography, have been particularly studied [26][27][28][29][30].…”