Advanced search
Publication Cover
The Journal of Sex Research Latest Articles
Submit an article Journal homepage
130
Views
0
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Research Article

Why Do People Watch Pornography? Cross-Cultural Validation of the Pornography Use Motivations Scale (PUMS) and Its Short Form (PUMS-8)

Mónika Koósa Institute of Forensic Psychiatry and Sex Research, University of Duisburg-Essen;b Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd UniversityCorrespondence[email protected]
ORCID Iconhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-9961-9174View further author information
ORCID Icon,
Léna Nagya Institute of Forensic Psychiatry and Sex Research, University of Duisburg-Essen;b Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd UniversityView further author information
,
Shane W. Krausc Department of Psychology, University of NevadaView further author information
,
Zsolt Demetrovicsb Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University;d Centre of Excellence in Responsible Gaming, University of Gibraltar;xxx College of Education, Psychology and Social Work, Flinders UniversityView further author information
,
Marc N. Potenzae Yale University School of Medicine;f Connecticut Council on Problem GamblingView further author information
,
Émilie Gaudetg Département de Psychologie, Université de MontréalView further author information
,
Rafael Ballester-Arnalh Departmento de Psicología Básica, Clínica y Psicobiología, University Jaume I of CastellónORCID Iconhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-4421-1144View further author information
ORCID Icon,
Dominik Batthyányi Institute for Behavioural Addictions, Sigmund Freud University ViennaView further author information
,
Sophie Bergerong Département de Psychologie, Université de MontréalView further author information
,
Joël Billieuxj Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne;k Center for Excessive Gambling, Addiction Medicine, Lausanne University Hospitals (CHUV)View further author information
,
Peer Brikenl Institute for Sex Research, Sexual Medicine, and Forensic Psychiatry, University Medical Centre Hamburg-EppendorfView further author information
,
Julius Burkauskasm Laboratory of Behavioral Medicine, Neuroscience Institute, Lithuanian University of Health SciencesView further author information
,
Georgina Cárdenas-Lópezn Virtual Teaching and Cyberpsychology Laboratory, School of Psychology, National Autonomous University of MexicoView further author information
,
Joana Carvalhoo William James Center for Research, Departamento de Educação e Psicologia, Universidade de AveiroView further author information
,
Jesús Castro-Calvop Department of Personality, Assessment, and Psychological Treatments, University of ValenciaORCID Iconhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-6611-9643View further author information
ORCID Icon,
Yun-Hsuan Changq Institute of Gerontology, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University;r Institute of Behavioral Sciences, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung UniversityView further author information
,
Lijun Chens Department of Psychology, College of Humanity and Social Science, Fuzhou UniversityView further author information
,
Giacomo Cioccat Section of Sexual Psychopathology, Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, and Health Studies, Sapienza University of RomeView further author information
,
Ornella Corazzau Department of Clinical, Pharmaceutical and Biological Sciences, University of Hertfordshire;v Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of TrentoView further author information
,
Rita I. Csakow Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Auckland University of TechnologyView further author information
,
David P. Fernandezx Nottingham Trent UniversityView further author information
,
Hironobu Fujiwaray Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University;z Decentralized Big Data Team, RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence ProjectView further author information
,
Elaine F. Fernandezaa HELP UniversityView further author information
,
Johannes Fussbb Institute of Forensic Psychiatry and Sex Research, Center for Translational Neuro- and Behavioral Sciences, University of Duisburg-EssenORCID Iconhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-0445-5021View further author information
ORCID Icon,
Roman Gabrhelíkcc First Faculty of Medicine, Department of Addictology, Charles University;dd Department of Addictology, General University Hospital in PragueView further author information
,
Ateret Gewirtz-Meydanee School of Social Work, Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, University of HaifaORCID Iconhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-8221-9425View further author information
ORCID Icon,
Biljana Gjoneskaff Macedonian Academy of Sciences and ArtsORCID Iconhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-1200-6672View further author information
ORCID Icon,
Mateusz Golagg Institute of Psychlogy, Polish Academy of Sciences;hh Institute for Neural Computations, University of California San DiegoView further author information
,
Joshua B. Grubbsii University of New Mexico;jj Center for Alcohol, Substance use, And Addiction (CASAA), University of New MexicoView further author information
,
Hashim T. Hashimkk College of Medicine, University of BaghdadORCID Iconhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-6155-7302View further author information
ORCID Icon,
Yi-Ping Hsiehll Department of Social Work, University of North DakotaView further author information
,
Md. Saiful Islammm Department of Public Health and Informatics, Jahangirnagar University;nn Centre for Advanced Research Excellence in Public HealthORCID Iconhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-3979-2423View further author information
ORCID Icon,
Mustafa Ismailkk College of Medicine, University of BaghdadView further author information
,
Martha C. Jiménez-Martínezoo Universidad Pedagógca y Tecnológica de Colombia;pp Grupo de Investigación Biomédica y de PatologíaView further author information
,
Tanja Jurinqq Department of Psychology, Humanities and Social Sciences, University of ZagrebView further author information
,
Ondrej Kalinarr Department of Educational Psychology and Psychology of Health, Pavol Jozef Safarik University in KosiceView further author information
,
Verena Kleinss School of Psychology, University of SouthamptonView further author information
,
András Költőtt Health Promotion Research Centre, University of GalwayView further author information
,
Sang-Kyu Leeuu Department of Psychiatry, Hallym University Chuncheon Sacred Heart Hospital;vv Chuncheon Addiction Management CenterView further author information
,
Karol Lewczukww Institute of Psychology, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski UniversityView further author information
,
Christine Lochnerxx SAMRC Unit on Risk & Resilience in Mental Disorders, Stellenbosch UniversityView further author information
,
Silvia López-Alvaradoyy University of CuencaView further author information
,
Kateřina Lukavskácc First Faculty of Medicine, Department of Addictology, Charles University;zz Faculty of Education, Department of Psychology, Charles UniversityView further author information
,
Percy Mayta-Tristánaaa Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Científica del SurView further author information
,
Dan J. Millerbbb College of Healthcare Sciences, James Cook UniversityORCID Iconhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-3230-2631View further author information
ORCID Icon,
Oľga Orosovárr Department of Educational Psychology and Psychology of Health, Pavol Jozef Safarik University in KosiceView further author information
,
Gábor Oroszccc Artois UniversityView further author information
,
Fernando P. Ponceddd Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de TalcaView further author information
,
Gonzalo R. Quintanaeee Departamento de Psicología y Filosofía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de TarapacáORCID Iconhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-3298-6877View further author information
ORCID Icon,
Gabriel C. Quintero Garzolafff Florida State University;ggg Sistema Nacional de Investigación (SNI), SENACYTView further author information
,
Jano Ramos-Diazhhh Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Privada del NorteORCID Iconhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-7993-2390View further author information
ORCID Icon,
Kévin Rigaudccc Artois UniversityView further author information
,
Ann Rousseauiii Leuven School For Mass Communication, KU LeuvenView further author information
,
Marco De Tubino Scanavinojjj Department of Psychiatry, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de São Paulo;kkk Experimental Pathophisiology Post Graduation Program, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de São PauloView further author information
,
Marion K. Schulmeyerlll Universidad Privada de Santa Cruz de la SierraView further author information
,
Pratap Sharanmmm Department of Psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical SciencesView further author information
,
Mami Shibatay Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto UniversityView further author information
,
Sheikh Shoibnnn Department of Psychology, Shardha UniversityView further author information
,
Vera Sigre-Leirósj Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne;ooo Institute of Legal Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospitals (CHUV)View further author information
,
Luke Sniewskippp Auckland University of TechnologyView further author information
,
Ognen Spasovskiqqq Faculty of Philosophy, University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in TrnavaView further author information
,
Vesta Steiblienem Laboratory of Behavioral Medicine, Neuroscience Institute, Lithuanian University of Health SciencesView further author information
,
Dan J. Steinrrr SAMRC Unit on Risk & Resilience in Mental Disorders, Department of Psychiatry & Neuroscience Institute, University of Cape TownView further author information
,
Julian Strizeksss Austrian Public Health InstituteView further author information
,
Alexandar Štulhoferttt University of ZagrebView further author information
, NA Sungkyunkwan University’s research team,
Berk C. Ünsala Institute of Forensic Psychiatry and Sex Research, University of Duisburg-Essen;b Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd UniversityView further author information
,
Marie-Pier Vaillancourt-Morelvvv Département de Psychologie, Université du Québec à Trois-RivièresView further author information
,
Marie Claire Van Houtwww Public Health Institute, Faculty of Health, Liverpool John Moores UniversityView further author information
&
Beáta Bőtheg Département de Psychologie, Université de Montréal;yyy Center de recherche interdisciplinary sur les problèmes conjugaux et les agressions sexuelles (CRIPCAS)ORCID Iconhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-2718-4703View further author information
ORCID Icon show all
Published online: 21 Jun 2024
 
Sample our Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing & Allied Health journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days

ABSTRACT

Motivations for pornography use may vary across gender identities, sexual orientations, and geographical regions, warranting examination to promote individual and public health. The aims of this study were to validate the Pornography Use Motivations Scale (PUMS) in a diverse, multicultural sample, and develop a short form (PUMS-8) that can assess a wide range of pornography use motivations. Using data from 42 countries (N = 75,117; Mage = 32.07; SDage = 12.37), enabled us to thoroughly evaluate the dimensionality, validity, and reliability of the Pornography Use Motivations Scale (PUMS), leading to the development of the more concise PUMS-8 short scale. Additionally, language-, nationality-, gender-, and sexual-orientation-based measurement invariance tests were conducted to test the comparability across groups. Both the PUMS and the PUMS-8 assess eight pornography use motivations, and both demonstrated excellent psychometric properties. Sexual Pleasure emerged as the most frequent motivation for pornography use across countries, genders, and sexual orientations, while differences were observed concerning other motivations (e.g. self-exploration was more prevalent among gender-diverse individuals than men or women). The motivational background of pornography use showed high similarity in the examined countries. Both the PUMS and the PUMS-8 are reliable and valid measurement tools to assess different types of motivations for pornography use across countries, genders, and sexual orientations. Both scales are recommended for use in research and clinical settings.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Anastasia Lucic for her help with project administration and data collection, and Natasha Zippan, Abu Bakkar Siddique, Anne-Marie Menard, Clara Marincowitz, Club Sexu, Critica, Digital Ethics Center (Skaitmeninės etikos centras), Día a Día, Ed Carty, El Siglo, Jakia Akter, Jayma Jannat Juma, Kamrun Nahar Momo, Kevin Zavaleta, Laraine Murray, L’Avenir de l’Artois, La Estrella de Panamá, La Voix du Nord, Le Parisien, Lithuanian National Radio and Television (Lietuvos nacionalinis radijas ir televizija), Mahfuzul Islam, Marjia Khan Trisha, Md. Rabiul Islam, Md. Shahariar Emon, Miriam Goodridge, Most. Mariam Jamila, Nahida Bintee Mostofa, Nargees Akter, Niamh Connolly, Rafael Goyoneche, Raiyaan Tabassum Imita, Raquel Savage, Ricardo Mendoza, Saima Fariha, SOS Orienta and Colegio de Psicólogos del Perú, Stephanie Kewley, Sumaiya Hassan, Susanne Bründl, Tamim Ikram, Telex.hu, Trisha Mallick, Tushar Ahmed Emon, Wéo, Yasmin Benoit for their help with recruitment and data collection.

Disclosure Statement

Dr. Potenza discloses that he has consulted for and advised Game Day Data, Addiction Policy Forum, AXA, Idorsia, and Opiant Therapeutics; received research support from the Mohegan Sun Casino, Children and Screens and the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling; consulted for or advised legal and gambling entities on issues related to impulse control, internet use and addictive behaviors; provided clinical care related to impulse-control and addictive behaviors; performed grant reviews; edited journals/journal sections; given academic lectures in grand rounds, CME events and other clinical/scientific venues; and generated books or chapters for publishers of mental health texts. The University of Gibraltar receives funding from the Gibraltar Gambling Care Foundation, an independent, not-for-profit charity. ELTE Eötvös Loránd University receives funding from Szerencsejáték Ltd. (the gambling operator of the Hungarian government) to maintain a telephone helpline service for problematic gambling. However, these funding sources are not related to this study, and the funding institution had no role in the study design or the collection, analysis, and interpretation of the data, the writing of the manuscript, or the decision to submit the paper for publication.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization: Mónika Koós, Léna Nagy, Shane W. Kraus, Zsolt Demetrovics, Marc N. Potenza, NA Sungkyunkwan University’s research team, and Beáta Bőthe.

Data curation: Mónika Koós, Léna Nagy, Shane W. Kraus, Zsolt Demetrovics, Marc N. Potenza, Émilie Gaudet, Rafael Ballester-Arnal, Dominik Batthyány, Sophie Bergeron, Joël Billieux, Peer Briken, Julius Burkauskas, Georgina Cárdenas-López, Joana Carvalho, Jesús Castro-Calvo, Yun-Hsuan Chang, Lijun Chen, Giacomo Ciocca, Ornella Corazza, Rita I. Csako, David P. Fernandez, Hironobu Fujiwara, Elaine F. Fernandez, Johannes Fuss, Roman Gabrhelík, Ateret Gewirtz-Meydan, Biljana Gjoneska, Mateusz Gola, Joshua B. Grubbs, Hashim T. Hashim, Yi-Ping Hsieh, Md. Saiful Islam, Mustafa Ismail, Martha C. Jiménez-Martínez, Tanja Jurin, Ondrej Kalina, Verena Klein, András Költő, Sang-Kyu Lee, Karol Lewczuk, Christine Lochner, Silvia López-Alvarado, Kateřina Lukavská, Percy Mayta-Tristán, Dan J. Miller, Oľga Orosová, GáborOrosz, Fernando P. Ponce, Gonzalo R. Quintana, Gabriel C. Quintero Garzola, Jano Ramos-Diaz, KévinRigaud, Ann Rousseau, Marco De TubinoScanavino, Marion K. Schulmeyer, PratapSharan, Mami Shibata, Sheikh Shoib, Vera Sigre-Leirós, Luke Sniewski, OgnenSpasovski, VestaSteibliene, Dan J. Stein, Julian Strizek, AlexandarŠtulhofer, NA Sungkyunkwan University’s research team, Berk C. Ünsal, Marie-Pier Vaillancourt-Morel, Marie Claire Van Hout, and BeátaBőthe.

Formal analysis: Mónika Koós, Émilie Gaudet, and Beáta Bőthe.

Funding acquisition: Mónika Koós, Léna Nagy, Shane W. Kraus, Zsolt Demetrovics, Roman Gabrhelík, Karol Lewczuk, and Beáta Bőthe.

Investigation: Mónika Koós, Léna Nagy, Shane W. Kraus, Zsolt Demetrovics, Marc N. Potenza, Émilie Gaudet, Rafael Ballester-Arnal, Dominik Batthyány, Sophie Bergeron, Joël Billieux, Peer Briken, Julius Burkauskas, Georgina Cárdenas-López, Joana Carvalho, Jesús Castro-Calvo, Yun-Hsuan Chang, Lijun Chen, Giacomo Ciocca, Ornella Corazza, Rita I. Csako, David P. Fernandez, Hironobu Fujiwara, Elaine F. Fernandez, Johannes Fuss, Roman Gabrhelík, Ateret Gewirtz-Meydan, Biljana Gjoneska, Mateusz Gola, Joshua B. Grubbs, Hashim T. Hashim, Yi-Ping Hsieh, Md. Saiful Islam, Mustafa Ismail, Martha C. Jiménez-Martínez, Tanja Jurin, Ondrej Kalina, Verena Klein, András Költő, Sang-Kyu Lee, Karol Lewczuk, Christine Lochner, Silvia López-Alvarado, Kateřina Lukavská, Percy Mayta-Tristán, Dan J. Miller, Oľga Orosová, GáborOrosz, Fernando P. Ponce, Gonzalo R. Quintana, Gabriel C. Quintero Garzola, Jano Ramos-Diaz, KévinRigaud, Ann Rousseau, Marco De TubinoScanavino, Marion K. Schulmeyer, PratapSharan, Mami Shibata, Sheikh Shoib, Vera Sigre-Leirós, Luke Sniewski, OgnenSpasovski, VestaSteibliene, Dan J. Stein, Julian Strizek, AlexandarŠtulhofer, NA Sungkyunkwan University’s research team, Berk C. Ünsal, Marie-Pier Vaillancourt-Morel, Marie Claire Van Hout, and BeátaBőthe.

Methodology: Mónika Koós, Léna Nagy, Shane W. Kraus, Zsolt Demetrovics, Marc N. Potenza, and Beáta Bőthe.

Project administration: Mónika Koós, Léna Nagy, Émilie Gaudet, and Beáta Bőthe.

Resources: Mónika Koós, Léna Nagy, Shane W. Kraus, Zsolt Demetrovics, Marc N. Potenza, Roman Gabrhelík, Biljana Gjoneska, Karol Lewczuk, Kateřina Lukavská, Gabriel C. Quintero Garzola, Jano Ramos-Diaz, and Beáta Bőthe.

Software: Mónika Koós and Beáta Bőthe.

Supervision: Beáta Bőthe.

Validation: Mónika Koós, Léna Nagy, Shane W. Kraus, Zsolt Demetrovics, Marc N. Potenza, and Beáta Bőthe.

Visualization: Mónika Koós.

Writing – original draft: Mónika Koós and Émilie Gaudet.

Writing – review & editing: Mónika Koós, Sophie Bergeron, Peer Briken, Yun-Hsuan Chang, David P. Fernandez, Roman Gabrhelík, Ateret Gewirtz-Meydan, Mateusz Gola, Yi-Ping Hsieh, András Költő, Karol Lewczuk, Christine Lochner, Kateřina Lukavská, Dan J. Miller, Fernando P. Ponce, Gonzalo R. Quintana, Marco De Tubino Scanavino, Vera Sigre-Leirós, Dan J. Stein, Alexandar Štulhofer, Marie-Pier Vaillancourt-Morel, Marie Claire Van Hout, and Beáta Bőthe.‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

Ethics

The authors assert that all procedures contributing to this work comply with the relevant national and institutional committees’ ethical standards on human experimentation and the Helsinki Declaration. The study received approval either from the national/institutional ethics review boards of all participating countries or from the local ethics committees, which determined that the study was exempt and did not require additional assessment since it had already been approved by the ethics committees of the principal investigators’ institutions:

https://osf.io/qg8c4

Supplementary Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2024.2359641

Notes

1 Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, and Romania were included in the study protocol paper as collaborating countries (Bőthe, Koós, et al., Citation2021); however, it was not possible to get ethical approval for the study in a timely manner in these countries. Therefore, these countries did not participate in the data collection. Chile was not included in the study protocol paper as a collaborating country (Bőthe, Koós, et al., Citation2021) as the Chilean research team joined the study after publishing the study protocol.

2 Test statistics for the PU motivations are the following: (H(32) = 5196.986, p < .001) of the Sexual Pleasure (SP), (H(32) = 4561.88, p < .001) for the Sexual Curiosity (SC), (H(32) = 2224.746, p < .001) for the Fantasy (FA), (H(32) = 3938.663, p < .001) for the Boredom Avoidance (BA), (H(32) = 4478.839, p < .001) for the Lack of Sexual Satisfaction (LS), (H(32) = 3541.582, p < .001) for the PUMS Emotional Distraction (ED), (H(32) = 4190.64, p < .001) for the Stress Reduction (SR) and (H(32) = 2035.924, p < .001) for the Self-Exploration (SE) PU motivations.

Additional information

Funding

Kévin Rigaud was supported by funding from the Hauts-de-France region (France) called “Dialogue Stratégique de Gestion 2 (DSG2)”; Marie-Pier Vaillancourt-Morel was supported by a Research Chair from the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières and a career award from the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Santé (FRQ-S); Rita I. Csako was supported by Auckland University of Technology, 2021 Faculty Research Development Fund; NA Sungkyunkwan University’s research team was supported by Brain Korea 21 (BK21) program of National Research Foundation of Korea.; Roman Gabrhelík and Kateřina Lukavská were supported by Charles University institutional support programme Cooperatio-Health Sciences; Hironobu Fujiwara was supported by Grant-in-Aid for Transformative Research Areas (A) [Japan Society for The Promotion of Science, JP21H05173], Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) [Japan Society for The Promotion of Science, 21H02849], and the smoking research foundation.; Joshua B. Grubbs was supported by grants from the International Center for Responsible Gaming and the Kindbridge Research Institute; Zsolt Demetrovics was supported by Hungarian National Research, Development, and Innovation Office [Grant numbers: KKP126835]; Shane W. Kraus was supported by Kindbridge Research Institute.; Mateusz Gola was supported by National Science Centre of Polant [grant nb. 2021/40/Q/HS6/00219]; Lijun Chen was supported by National Social Science Foundation of China [Grant No. 19BSH117]; Karol Lewczuk was supported by Sonatina grant awarded by National Science Centre, Poland [grant number: 2020/36/C/HS6/00005]; Gábor Orosz was supported by the ANR grant of the Chaire Professeur Junior of Artois University and by the Strategic Dialogue and Management Scholarship (Phase 1 and 2); Gabriel C. Quintero Garzola was supported by the SNI #073–2022 (SENACYT, Rep. of Panama); Christine Lochner was supported by the WUN Research Development Fund (RDF) 2021; Sophie Bergeron was supported by Tier 1 Canada Research Chair; Mónika Koós and Léna Nagy were supported by ÚNKP-22-3 New National Excellence Program of the Ministry for Culture and Innovation from the source of the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund.

Log in via your institution

Access through your institution

Log in to Taylor & Francis Online

Restore content access

Restore content access for purchases made as guest
Purchase options * Save for later

PDF download + Online access

  • 48 hours access to article PDF & online version
  • Article PDF can be downloaded
  • Article PDF can be printed
USD 53.00 Add to cart

Issue Purchase

  • 30 days online access to complete issue
  • Article PDFs can be downloaded
  • Article PDFs can be printed
USD 165.00 Add to cart

* Local tax will be added as applicable
Supercharge Your Next Research Paper: Research and write your next paper with Jenni AI.

Related Research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.