Sex Education, Public Opinion, and Pornography: A Conditional Process Analysis

Abstract

This study assesses the relationship between pornography consumption and support for sex education in public schools among adults in the United States. Goals were theoretical and applied. At the theoretical level, conditional process analyses are needed to further evaluate the predictions of the primary theory applied to pornography and social influence, the sexual script acquisition, activation, application model (₃AM) of sexual media socialization. At the applied level, themes in pornography are most often associated with socialization outcomes that are a threat to the public health. In certain instances, however, pornography may socialize its users in ways that lead to health-promoting attitudes. An increased likelihood of support for sex education among youth may be one such example. Probabilistic national survey data gathered between 1988 and 2016 from 16 unique samples were utilized. A moderated-mediation path analysis indicated that pornography consumption was associated with support for sex education through more acceptance of teenage sex, but that this indirect effect (IE) was moderated by religiosity. Specifically, as religiosity decreased, the magnitude of the IE increased. These results are consistent with ₃AM tenets about the role of sexual scripts in mass media socialization and factors that increase the likelihood of sexual scripting effects.

Notes

1. The theoretical framework utilized in the present study calls for a very specific evaluation and discussion of the interplay between religiosity and pornography use. It is important to note that the dynamics between religiosity, pornography, sociality, and health extend well beyond the topics of attitude-change and public opinion of interest to this particular analysis. The work of Grubbs and his colleagues on religion, pornography, and addiction and Perry and his colleagues on religion, pornography, and relational health are especially notable recent lines of research (Grubbs, Exline, Pargament, Hook, & Carlisle, 2015; Grubbs, Wilt, Exline, Pargament, & Kraus, 2018; Perry, 2017; Perry & Schleifer, 2018).

2. This is a conceptual statement about the psychology posited to explain why adults who are less accepting of teenagers having sex would be less supportive of sex education. It is not a descriptive statement about the actual degree of abstinence among youth in the United States. Findings from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (Kann et al., 2016) suggest that approximately 40% of youth in grades 9–12 have had sexual intercourse.

3. Results were also parallel when year of data collection was adjusted for (i.e., when year of data collection was included as a covariate). Additionally, results were parallel when analyses were restricted to post-Internet years (e.g., when only participants surveyed in the year 2000 or later were included – Campbell, 2015; Dominick, Messere, & Sherman, 2008). Thus, while there can be little doubt that the ready availability of Internet pornography has affected some aspects of human sexuality (Doring, 2009), it does not appear to have had a significant impact on the relationships between these particular variables.