Distress and Satisfaction in Women Who Perceive that Their Male Partners Use Pornography: The Roles of Attitude, Religious Commitment and Conservative Religiosity

ABSTRACT

Qualitative studies suggest that women’s attitudes and religiosity have an important role in their experience of their male partners’ pornography use, but these factors have not been adequately studied. The present study examined the contributions of perceived frequency of male partners’ solitary pornography use (PFREQ), women’s attitudes toward their partners’ pornography use, conservative religiosity, and religious commitment to women’s pornography-related distress, relationship satisfaction, and sexual satisfaction in women who reported they were married to or cohabitating with men who had used pornography in the prior 3 months (median frequency = 1–2 times/week). Participants were online research panel participants (n = 625), age mean = 44[SD = 13], diverse SES, 86% White. Partial correlations and multiple regressions, controlling for demographic variables and COVID-19-related stress, indicated that higher PFREQ and negative attitudes toward pornography were significantly associated with women’s higher pornography-related distress, lower relationship satisfaction, and lower sexual satisfaction. Moderation analyses found that negative attitude amplified the negative association between PFREQ and relationship satisfaction, and conservative religiosity amplified the positive association between PFREQ and pornography-related distress. Neither attitude nor religious factors moderated the negative association between PFREQ and sexual satisfaction. Findings suggest that attitude, religious factors, and PFREQ are each important to consider in research and clinical contexts.

Acknowledgement

We thank Drs. Martha C. Tompson, Kristin Long, and Michael Lyons for their useful discussions and feedback on this project.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this study was provided by the Boston University Clara Mayo Memorial Fellowship and the American Psychological Association Division 36: Division of Religion and Spirituality student research award.