Longitudinal Assessment of the Association Between Pornography Use and Sexual Satisfaction in Adolescence

Abstract

Pornography has been theorized to affect sexual satisfaction for decades, yet only two prospective studies, both conducted in the Netherlands, have explored this link among adolescents. Given the unprecedented availability of (online) sexually explicit content and the potential importance of its relationship to sexual satisfaction for young people, we have revisited the association between these variables in a less sexually permissive society. Using a panel sample of 775 female and 514 male Croatian high school students (M_{age at baseline} = 15.9 years, SD = 0.52) and latent growth curve modeling with six observation points, we did not find a significant association between changes in the frequency of adolescents’ pornography use over time and their sexual satisfaction at wave six. The association between the initial levels of pornography use and sexual satisfaction, which, if present, would have indicated a possible relationship during middle adolescence, was also null. These patterns were similar across genders. Possible explanations for the difference between our results and the results of the previous studies are discussed.

Notes

¹ It appears that Doornwaard et al. (2014) specified only linear latent growth in participants’ pornography use, which is not standard practice. Although this may not have affected their finding in the male sample (the relationship between baseline pornography use and sexual satisfaction), the robustness of the reported association between latent slope in pornography use and female adolescents’ sexual satisfaction is dependent on whether latent growth is best approximated by a linear or a nonlinear curve.

² More recent explorations of the process of social comparison point to the importance of individual differences, as well as to strategical minimization of unfavorable comparisons by emphasizing differences between self and the target of comparison (see Buunk & Gibbons, 2007). In the context of pornography, the latter point would suggest that the likelihood of finding pornography a reliable guide to how sex should be would be reduced if it is dependent, at least to a degree, on the viewer’s identification with (socially stigmatized) protagonists of pornographic videos.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Hrvatska zaklada za znanost (9221) and the Atlantic Grupa, d.d., Zagreb.