Examination of Gender Differences in Depression, Relationship Satisfaction, and Problematic Pornography Use Among Romanian Gay Men and Lesbian Women

Abstract

This study investigates factors influencing the psychological well-being of gay and lesbian individuals in Romania. Participants (N = 172) included 61.6% gay and 38.4% lesbians, currently in relationships, aged between 18 and 62 years (M = 28.28; SD = 9.53). Surveys assessed relationship satisfaction, depression, and problematic pornography use. Significant associations were found among these variables, with gender differences observed. We tested a regression model for problematic pornography use, where depression provided additional explanatory power to the initial model. Age, gender, and depression accounted for 18% of the variance in problematic pornography use. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Keywords:

• Gay men
• lesbian women
• problematic pornography use
• relationship satisfaction
• depression
• romania

Authors’ contribution

Tudor-Daniel Huțul, Adina Karner-Huțuleac, and Andreea Huțul contributed equally to conceptualization, methodology, supervision, writing-original draft, writing-review and editing and data curation. Alexandru Popescu served in a supporting role for formal analysis, and methodology.

Consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have influenced the work reported in this paper.

Ethics statement

This study’s protocol was designed in concordance with ethical requirements specific to the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University (Iași, Romania), before beginning the study and supervised by Tudor-Daniel Huțul.

All participants voluntarily participated in the study and gave written informed consent following the Declaration of Helsinki and the national laws from Romania regarding ethical conduct in scientific research, technological development, and innovation.

No animal studies are presented in this manuscript.

Data availability statement

Data available on request from the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.