Let’s Talk About Sex(ual Health): Young Adult Women’s Disclosure of Their Pornography Use to Their Romantic Partners

ABSTRACT

Within romantic relationships, secret-keeping has been related to negative outcomes whereas self-disclosure has been related to positive outcomes. Exploring young adult women’s pornography use disclosures to their romantic partners can provide further avenues for understanding aspects of sexual and relational health. Using an open-ended survey informed by the Revelation Risk Model (RRM), this study explored young adult women’s reasons and perceived relational outcomes of disclosing their pornography use to their romantic partners. Data from 32 young adult women (M = 20.8 years old), were thematically analyzed. Women in our sample reported disclosing for three main reasons: disclosed to be close, disclosed because we are intimate, and speaking our minds. They also reported that their disclosures resulted in emotional, sexual, or no relational changes. Further, we found that women who engaged in more in-depth conversations following their pornography disclosures perceived there to be more positive relational changes in comparison to women who had surface-level conversations following their pornography disclosures.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Drs. Dave Keating, Monica Gallegos, Francesca Dillman Carpentier, and Jennifer Erdely for their feedback on previous drafts.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.