Sexual Desire and Subjective Distress among Pornography Consumers

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

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.

Psychometric Network Analysis of the Problematic Pornography Use Scale (PPUS) in Peruvian Adults

Objective

The aim of this research was to analyze the psychometric properties of the Problematic Pornography Use Scale (PPUS).

Methods

A sample of 704 Peruvian youth and adults aged 18 to 62 years (M = 26, SD = 6.0) was considered, of which 56% were female and 43% male. The participants were from various cities in Peru: Lima (84%), Trujillo (2.6%), Arequipa (1.8%), and Huancayo (1.6%). The validity of the theoretical structure of the PPUS was carried out by means of two techniques: Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and Exploratory Graphical Analysis (EGA), a new effective and efficient dimension evaluation technique, whose measure consists of verifying the fit of the dimension structure.

Results

Using the bifactor model, the hypothesis that PPUS has a unifactorial behavior was corroborated. These approximations of unidimensionality are also corroborated by the EGA method, where the centrality parameters and network loadings are found to have acceptable estimates.

Conclusion

The results demonstrate the validity of the PPUS, contrasting with the factor model and verifying the unidimensionality of the construct, which provide useful directions for future studies on the instrumentalization of problematic pornography use scale.

"Pornography Addiction": Elements for Discussion of a Case Report

Can Internet pornography use (IPU) lead to addiction? "Pornography addiction" is a highly controversial concept within the scientific community. In the absence of consensus, international classifications do not consider that the concept meets the criteria to be recognized as a distinct diagnostic entity. However, the term "pornography addiction" has now become common parlance and is therefore present in the discourse of patients seeking therapy to address what they perceive as problematic pornography consumption. Drawing on a brief case vignette, presenting the case of a man who views himself as a pornography addict, we offer a critical review of this concept. Different diagnostic hypotheses will be considered. Beyond the diagnostic process, we consider the issue of "perceived addiction" and its relationship with "moral incongruence." From a psychotherapeutic view, we suggest that patients who self-identify as "porn addicts" must be supported using a more comprehensive approach that goes beyond their symptomatic behavior or the manner in which they present or perceive themselves. The proposed therapy did not seek or require an end to the behavior. The therapy approach focused on exploring the patient's history in an attempt to understand the construction of his sexuality and morality. In the case analyzed, focusing on the source of moral incongruence led to the disappearance of IPU and all associated suffering.

Porndemic? A Longitudinal Study of Pornography Use Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Nationally Representative Sample of Americans

Of the many changes in daily life brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing efforts and governmentally mandated lockdowns were among the most drastic. Coinciding with these changes, popular pornography websites made some previously premium content available for free, spurring dramatic increases in traffic to these websites. This increase in time spent at home and reported increases in traffic to specific pornographic websites led to some speculation that pornography use might generally increase over the course of the pandemic and that problematic use might also increase. To test these speculations and quantify the effects of the pandemic and its associated restrictions on social behaviors on pornography use, we analyzed data from a longitudinal sample of American adults. Baseline, nationally representative data were collected in August 2019 via YouGov (N = 2518). Subsequent data were collected in February 2020 (n = 1677), May 2020 (n = 1533), August 2020 (n = 1470), and October 2020 (n = 1269). Results indicated that, in May 2020, immediately following the height of the first wave of pandemic-related lockdowns, more people reported past-month pornography use than at other follow-up time points, but less did so than at baseline. Among those who reported use in May 2020, only 14% reported increases in use since the start of the pandemic, and their use returned to levels similar to all other users by August 2020. In general, pornography use trended downward over the pandemic, for both men and women. Problematic pornography use trended downward for men and remained low and unchanged in women. Collectively, these results suggest that many fears about pornography use during pandemic-related lockdowns were largely not supported by available data.

Associations between Fluctuating Shame, Self-Esteem, and Sexual Desire: Comparing Frequent Porn Users and a General Population Sample

In the present study, we explore the proposed cyclic models for problematic hypersexuality (PH) that involve shame, self-esteem, and sexual desire. These cyclic models are characterized by temporal associations but have not been investigated previously with intensive longitudinal designs. In this study, we collected up to 70 measurements per participant within a period of seven consecutive days, which allowed us to investigate associations between fluctuations of shame, self-esteem, and sexual desire. Participants were divided in four subgroups: (1) women (n = 87); (2) men (n = 46) from a general population convenience sample; (3) men watching porn >2 times per week, showing non-problematic hypersexuality (NH; n = 10); and (4) men watching porn >2 times per week, experiencing PH (n = 11). Multilevel analyses, including cross-level interactions, were used to investigate between-group differences in intraindividual processes. Results showed that prior increases in shame forecasted higher current sexual desire for men with PH, but not for the other groups, suggesting that men with PH use sexual desire to downregulate dysphoric feelings of shame. Differences between groups in associations between self-esteem and sexual desire were also found. Based on our results, we propose the Split Pleasure/Shame model, which represents emotion dysregulation in PH, and juxtapose this with the pleasurable experience of sex by non-PH groups. Further intensive longitudinal research is necessary to test this model and, more generally, to investigate the fluctuating nature of sexual desire.