The Roles of Frequency of Pornography Use, and Moral Incongruence in the Relationship Between Sexual Satisfaction, and Psychological Distress Related to the Use of Pornography: A Moderated Mediation Model

Abstract

Objective: This study aims to examine how the frequency of pornography use mediates between sexual satisfaction and psychological distress related to the use of pornography, moderated by moral incongruence. Method: 943 individuals from Romania, aged 18-65 (M = 27.95; SD = 9.29), 70.1% of whom were women, all in romantic relationships. Results: The frequency of pornography use mediated the link between sexual satisfaction and psychological distress, with moral incongruence moderating this relationship. Conclusion: Moral incongruence plays a crucial role in understanding the dynamics between sexual satisfaction, pornography use, and psychological distress related to the use of pornography.

Keywords:

• Sexual satisfaction
• pornography
• moral incongruence
• psychological distress
• romania

Authors’ contribution

Tudor-Daniel Huțul, and Adina Karner-Huțuleac 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.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Ethics approval

The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University, Iași, Romania, before beginning the study and supervised by Tudor-Daniel Huțul.

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.