Brian J. Willoughby

Brigham Young University - Provo Main Campus | BYU · School of Family Life

This study seeks to build on previous research about how pornography use is associated with relationship outcomes. Using the 3AM model (Wright, 2011) as a theoretical guide, sexual behaviors were tested as a possible mediator of the association between pornography use and relationship well-being. Using a national data set of individuals in heterose...

While an increasing amount of scholarship has focused on the relationships between pornography use and well-being, most of this research has conceptualized and measured the frequency of pornography use as a single continuum ranging from no use to compulsive use without considering how other contextual factors may impact patterns of use and associat...

The potential link between orgasm consistency (i.e., the percentage of time an individual experiences orgasm during sexual interactions with a partner) and sexual satisfaction in mixed-gender sexual relationships remains underexamined in the literature. We combined two dyadic samples (N = 725 couples) and utilized Dyadic Response Surface Analysis (...

While perceived addiction and religiosity have been key contextual factors in understanding the link between pornography use and personal distress, these contextual factors have been explored less in the relational literature. Using a large nonprobability convenience sample from the United States, a moderated mediation model of the association betw...

Research into adolescent pornography use has identified numerous individual-level behavioral and attitudinal correlates. However, associations between adolescents' pornography viewing and their romantic relationships remain understudied. Furthermore, very little is known about adolescents' watching pornography with their romantic partners (i.e., jo...

This chapter explores the intersection of religion and sex among emerging adults. It first discusses the extant empirical literature related to how religion influences sexual behavioral decisions as well as the link between religion and sexual values and attitudes. It then acknowledges a general waning from religion during emerging adulthood but pr...

Most research has shown that sexual satisfaction in long-term relationships tends to decline over time. Studies showing the average trajectory, however, are limited by only assessing one slope. With longitudinal data from the Flourishing Families Project, Marital Instability Dataset, and the Iowa Youth and Families Project, we utilized growth mixtu...

While scholars have increasingly explored associations between pornography use and relationship quality, this research has been limited by various methodological and conceptual problems. One specific limitation noted by previous scholars is the assumption that such associations are always linear. Using a national sample of 3750 individuals in commi...

Previous scholars have found that when individuals feel that pornography use is uncontrollable, it is linked to more extreme negative outcomes than frequency of use. With a Mechanical Turk sample of 1421 individuals, we used structural equation modeling to evaluate how multiple aspects of sexual desire (sexual drive and dyadic desire) and multiple...

Background: While links between pornography use and couple relational well-being have been the subject of multiple research studies, less attention has been paid to the associations between pornography use and specific sexual behavior within the relationship. Aim: This study aimed to explore associations between each partner's pornography use, sex...

With the increase in the availability and usage of pornography, the research on the effects of pornography has also increased. This research has uncovered several controversies in the field regarding how pornography usage influences attitudes, sexual behaviors, and relationships. However, many of the measures of pornography are problematic as there...

With marriage now delayed until later in the life course, developmental and young adult scholars have increasingly focused on how relational and marital beliefs of unmarried young adults influence developmental and relational trajectories. Yet little research has explored how these same perceptions and beliefs may alter adult relationships and marr...

Pornography use is now considered a normative sexual activity, including for partnered individuals. Although there are documented positive and negative effects of pornography use on romantic relationships, studies to date suffer from key limitations, narrowing their clinical relevance. Most rely on vague recall measurement that may inadequately cap...

To understand how non-university emerging adults think about marriage and how these beliefs differ by gender, we used a diverse national quantitative sample (Study 1, n = 667) from the United States and qualitative data (Study 2, n = 63) from participants of diverse geographic locations, also from the United States. Women and men valued marriage as...

Scholars have studied emerging adults and pornography extensively, but to date there is no research on how pornography influences how emerging adults approach and act in relationships. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the nature of pornography use among emerging adults, as well as to look at the relationship between pornography use and por...

Research exploring the correlates, moderators, and potential consequences of viewing pornography for romantic couples has surged in recent years. Research in this area has primarily focused on the question of whether viewing pornography for either partner (or together) is related to enhanced, diminished, or has no effect on relational well-being. H...

Because early initiation of sexual behavior can lead to negative health outcomes, it is important to understand the influence of family of origin (FOO) on adolescent sexual debut. This brief report explores the relationship between time spent living with both biological parents, overall quality of FOO experience, and various sexual behaviors (vagin...

Previous studies have suggested that parental divorce influences the relational beliefs and orientation toward marriage of adolescents and emerging adults. Most of this previous work has been limited to links between parental divorce and global attitudes toward marriage or attitudes toward divorce. Using a mixed-method design, the current study exp...

Pornography has received increased scholarly and policy attention, as the rate of online pornography consumption has increased and the availability of sexually explicit material grows. However, few studies have taken into consideration how personal definitions of what sexual material is perceived as pornographic may influence the correlates and out...

Spouses perceiving that they have shared power in marriage has been linked to higher marital quality and attachment security. Existing research, however, is limited in assessing how these perceptions influence both spouses and whether these influences endure over time. To address these limitations, we analyzed the longitudinal relationship reports...

How might anticipated role priorities (centrality) influence changes in beliefs about marriage and family that can influence to the transition to adulthood? The current longitudinal study of 149 young adults investigated changes in the relative role centralities of anticipated adult roles and the predictability of the centralities of changes in mar...

In this article, we review research on contemporary social trends that influence the next generation's ability to form and sustain a healthy marriage. As a result, we argue for greater attention to premarital interventions for engaged couples to help the next generation address the potential challenges created by these trends. After we briefly revi...

With a Mechanical Turk sample of 1,614 sexually active individuals (62.6% women, 85% heterosexual, mean age of 34.47 years) who had been in a committed sexual relationship for at least two years, we used structural equation modeling to better understand how global religiosity may indirectly influence sexual satisfaction. Because religiosity has bee...

Scholars have studied emerging adults and pornography extensively, but to date there is no research on how pornography influences how emerging adults approach and act in relationships. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the nature of pornography use among emerging adults, as well as to look at the relationship between pornography use and por...

Although many studies have examined the association between religion and sexuality, the majority of these studies have focused on nonmarital sex. Unfortunately, despite the fact that a satisfying sexual relationship plays a critical role in married couples’ relationship quality and stability, the associations between religiosity and marital sexual...

Most previous research on the associations between pornography use and relational well-being has utilized individual data sets that have limited scholars’ ability to truly understand the dyadic nature of pornography use within romantic couples. Using a dyadic data set of 240 committed heterosexual couples from the United States, we explored actor a...

Background: Self-reported orgasm, perception of partner's orgasm, and misperception of partner's orgasm have each been correlated with individual sexual and relationship satisfaction, but these associations have rarely included dyadic data, have not fully accounted for potentially confounding variables such as sexual communication, and have never...

The majority of research on pornography use within committed relationships has found such use to be associated with negative outcomes. However, given the variability in pornography use among couples, the current study sought to examine moderators in the association between pornography use and relationship satisfaction in a large sample of heterosex...

Data from 428 emerging adults were analyzed to investigate how growing up with at least one opposite-sex sibling related to marital beliefs. Participants were divided into three groups: having an opposite-sex sibling, having only a same–same sibling(s), and having no siblings. Using the belief dimensions and assumptions of Marital Paradigms Theory,...

Recent research has suggested that sexual content and sexual satisfaction are multifaceted. Yet, no study has parceled out how distinct aspects of sexual content may be associated with multiple aspects of sexual satisfaction. In this study of 858 individuals in a committed romantic relationship, we used structural equation models to evaluate how tw...

While the scholarly literature on pornography use is growing, much of this literature has examined pornography use as a static feature that does not change. Despite this trend, pornography use, like most sexual behaviors, is likely best viewed as a dynamic feature that may shift across the developmental life span. Using a sample of 908 adults from...

Limited research exists concerning pornography’s influence on emerging adult’s relationship trajectories, with no research examining how pornography use predicts emerging adults’ beliefs about marriage. The study includes cross-sectional results of 568 emerging adults and longitudinal results of 142 participants who were followed from the original...

Pornography may be a construct with a single trait or one with many traits. Research in the past was inconsistent in this regard with most researchers assuming that pornography was unidimensional (with one single trait of pornography). However, the considerable amounts of residual variation found in these studies beyond that explained by the single...

The purpose of the present study was to present theological, philosophical, and psychological arguments for chastity as a virtue, and then test an empirical model linking religiosity to outcomes by way of values about chastity. Specifically, we tested a mediation model linking religiosity to outcomes via chastity values (beliefs about the importanc...

Relationship self-regulation refers to the “work” partners put in to keep their relationships healthy. Past relationship self-regulation research has not taken into account distal variables that may affect it, such as respondents’ own and parental avoidant couple conflict-resolution styles. Using data from 4,456 people in their first marriages who...

Recent research on pornography suggests that perception of addiction predicts negative outcomes above and beyond pornography use. Research has also suggested that religious individuals are more likely to perceive themselves to be addicted to pornography, regardless of how often they are actually using pornography. Using a sample of 686 unmarried ad...

Using matched, heterosexual couple data from the Relationship Evaluation Questionnaire (RELATE; n = 326 couples), an adapted common-fate approach was used to examine both common and unique attributes of husbands' and wives' acceptance of pornography and sexual satisfaction as well as husbands' and wives' pornography use. It was expected that spouse...

Despite the widespread acceptance and use of pornography, much remains unknown about the heterogeneity among consumers of pornography. Using a sample of 457 college students from a mid-western university in the United States, a latent profile analysis was conducted to identify unique classifications of pornography users considering motivations of p...

Scholars have studied emerging adults and pornography extensively, but to date there is no research on how pornography influences how emerging adults approach and act in relationships. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the nature of pornography use among emerging adults, as well as to look at the relationship between pornography use and por...

Drawing upon both the incompatibility of materialism and children model and marital paradigms theory, the purpose of the current study was to examine husband-wife actor and partner effects between materialism and marital satisfaction and to explore perception of the importance of marriage as a mediator of these relationships. Using a sample of 706...

Perhaps the most notable finding of pornography research to date is the sizeable gender gap that exists between men and women when it comes to their personal use and acceptance of pornography. This disparity raises a number of questions about couple formation patterns and the relationship dynamics that arise between men and women related to pornogr...

The association between marital beliefs and life satisfaction is investigated on the foundation of the Marital Paradigm Theory. Using secondary data analysis with data from the Changing American Family study by the Pew Forum, beliefs in the advantageousness of marriage were assessed from a representative sample of the United States (weighted N = 24...

Although research on marital beliefs has been increasing in recent years due to cultural and behavioral shifts regarding marital transitions, scholarly work dedicated to the measurement of marital beliefs has been limited. Using a sample of 571 college students, the Criteria for Marriage Readiness Scale (CMRS) was assessed to see if results from a...

While many studies have explored the correlates and outcomes associated with pornography use, the measurement of such use has relied heavily on self-definitions of pornography from research participants, and little is known regarding how individuals define pornography for themselves. Using a diverse sample of 2,089 individuals sampled from the onli...

The authors investigated associations between young adults' perceived purposes of emerging adulthood and their attitudes toward and participation in cohabitation. In a sample of 775 never married individuals, ages 18-29 (69% female, 69% white) from the United States, young people's perceptions of this period of life were associated with their accep...

As emerging adults recenter (Tanner and Arnett in Debating emerging adulthood: Stage or process? Oxford University Press, New York, pp 13–30, 2011) their relationships with their family, they may retain some values and behaviors, while they disregard others temporarily or even for good. In the current study, we investigated whether emerging adults’...

There is considerable academic and popular concern about the increasing gender gap in higher education enrollment in the United States. Males now constitute just 43% of the postsecondary enrollment. This research focused on nonmarital birth and father absence as predictors of lower levels of college enrollment for boys versus girls. The authors pre...

This study explored the potential uniqueness of staying over, or spending the night with a romantic partner, as a relationship status. Using a recent sample of 2,304 individuals in romantic relationships, we explored how staying over might be associated with demographic, intrapersonal, and relational characteristics. Results suggested that individu...

The present study utilized a sample of 1755 adult couples in heterosexual romantic relationships to examine how different patterns of pornography use between romantic partners may be associated with relationship outcomes. While pornography use has been generally associated with some negative and some positive couple outcomes, no study has yet explo...

Research has consistently found an association between marital distress and poor mental and physical health of couples, as well as the impact on maladaptive child outcomes. Several studies have examined the problems that couples experience in the United States, while only one study has in Taiwan. However, there is no cross-cultural research on mari...

The purpose of this study was to examine differences in how young people view the period of life from the late teens to the mid-to-late twenties and how different perspectives of the time period may be differentially associated with indices of adjustment and maladjustment. Participants included 772 college students in the United States with an aver...

The aim of this study was to expand on previous studies of cohabitation to understand the relationship between marital orientations and the relationship well-being of cohabiting couples with a particular focus on using dyadic analyses to understand within-couple patterns. Results from a sample of 1,837 couples provided evidence that an intent to de...

The current study of 434 young adults investigated the relative centralities of anticipated adult roles. Based on assigned percentages to career, marriage, and parenthood roles, five distinct relative centrality profiles were created: Child Centered, Marriage Centered, Marriage and Child, Career Centered, and Family and Career. The Career Centered...

ABSTRACT Marriage, once a gateway to adulthood, is no longer as widely considered a requirement for achieving adult status. With declining marriage rates and delayed marital transitions, some have wondered whether current young adults have rejected the traditional notion of marriage. Utilizing a sample of 571 young adults, the present study explore...

Current research on predictors of marital atti- tudes highlights the importance of family and interpersonal processes, yet fails to identify which factors are more important and whether there are mediators that help to conceptually simplify the process by which such attitudes are influenced. We examine the influence of family-of- origin quality and...

Using dyadic data from 961 married couples from the Relationship Evaluation Questionnaire project, the current study explored the direct association between family of origin climate and marital outcomes and the indirect association via relationship self-regulation (RSR). Results from the actor-partner interdependence model analysis indicated that f...

Pornography use among emerging adults in the USA has increased in recent decades, as has the acceptance of such consumption. While previous research has linked pornography use to both positive and negative outcomes in emerging adult populations, few studies have investigated how attitudes toward pornography may alter these associations, or how exam...

The present study utilized a sample of 962 individuals in dating, cohabiting, and marital relationships to examine how beliefs about marriage salience and permanence were associated with individual relationship functioning. While previous studies have suggested that marital beliefs are associated with individual decision making, few studies have ex...

Using a sample of 982 late adolescents and tracking them throughout young adulthood, this study investigated if marital attitudes held during the last year of high school were predictive of union transitions to both cohabitation and marriage during young adulthood. Results using both logistic regression and discrete event history models found that...

Utilizing a sample of 571 college students, we examined the varying marital paradigms held by emerging adults. Drawing on Marital Paradigm Theory, we explored how beliefs about Marital Salience, timing, process, context, permanence, and centrality created unique paradigms about marriage. We found evidence that emerging adults can be separated into...

Attempting to initiate physical intimacy with a partner has traditionally been explored through the lens of sexual pressure and coercion and linked to negative couple outcomes. The present study utilized a sample of 397 male/female couples in committed relationships (married and cohabiting) to explore more generally how attempts at sexual intimacy...

Although research on marital beliefs among emerging adults has increased in recent years, most studies assume that marital beliefs are static features of emerging adulthood. Using a sample of 134 emerging adults in the United States tracked over a 1-year period, we explored if these emerging adults exhibited changes in their marital beliefs over ti...

This article outlines a conceptual framework for summarizing the marital beliefs and values of individuals regardless of marital status. Drawing on concepts from symbolic interactionism and recent midrange theories of marital attitudes, we propose that marital beliefs can be conceptualized as an individual marital paradigm, which comprises both bel...

In this study, the association was explored between the number of sexual partners individuals had in their lifetimes and martial outcomes. The research objective was to test whether the number of sexual partners was associated with sexual quality, communication, relationship satisfaction, and relationship stability, while controlling for relationsh...

Previous studies have found associations between the individual discrepancy of desired sexual frequency and actual sexual frequency and relational outcomes among premarital couples. The present study extended this research by using a sample of 1,054 married couples to explore how actor and partner individual sexual desire discrepancy (SDD) scores w...

Numerous studies have shown how shyness affects individuals in childhood and adolescence; however, little is known about the effects shyness may have in emerging adulthood. This study addressed how shyness may be associated with sexual attitudes and behaviors of emerging adult men and women. Participants included 717 students from four college site...

The present study used a sample of 779 unmarried emerging adult college students to test the hypothesis that higher levels of helicopter parenting would be related to less positive marital attitudes. Helicopter parenting entails intense and intrusive involvement by parents under the guise of caring and protection. Using hierarchical multiple regres...

While recent studies have suggested that the timing of sexual initiation within a couple's romantic relationship has important associations with later relationship success, few studies have examined how such timing is associated with relationship quality among unmarried couples. Using a sample of 10,932 individuals in unmarried, romantic relationsh...

The present study examines how demographics, attitudes toward marriage, attitudes toward sexual activity, sexual behaviors, and dating experience are associated with three different attitudes toward cohabitation among never-married young adults. Results from a sample of 1,036 young adult college students suggest that the endorsement of cohabitation...

Grounded in a marital horizon theory of emerging adulthood, this article presents a study that provides an evaluation of the differences between parents’ and emerging adults’ views about marriage. Using a sample of 536 emerging adults and their parents (446 mothers, 360 fathers) recruited from five college sites from across the United States, the s...

American college housing is beginning to introduce gender-neutral housing, or the housing of students in the same room regardless of gender. This study provides a descriptive overview of gender-neutral housing from 148 universities and documents central areas of debate in current policy discussions. Information regarding gender-neutral housing poli...

This study explores the factors that divorcing couples say contributed to the breakdown of their marriage and how those factors are related to thoughts and interest in reconciliation. A sample of 886 individual divorcing parents in Hennepin County, Minnesota, in 2008 responded to a brief survey after mandated parenting classes. The two most common...

The present authors used data from 1,920 heterosexual, never-married individuals to assess the differences on couple outcomes and family of origin evaluations between early cohabiters and early daters. Early cohabiters were individuals who were living with their romantic partner in relationships that were less than 1 year old. Results suggested tha...

Utilizing a sample of 1365 never-married cohabiting couples, we developed a typology of premarital cohabitation. Latent class analysis was used to create a five-class model of cohabiting couples who were then compared to engaged and non-engaged non-cohabiting couples on measures of interpersonal dynamics and relational outcomes. Results suggested t...

Using a sample of 335 young adults and their parents, this study investigated the intergenerational transmission of marital attitudes from parents to their children and how parental marital quality moderates that relationship. Results suggested that the marital attitudes of both mothers and fathers are related to the marital attitudes of their chil...

Using a sample of 1,134 emerging adults, this study explores how the importance place on marriage, ideal marital timing, and criteria for marriage readiness varies by sexual experience. Sexual experience groups were created using cluster analysis techniques that incorporated both sexual behaviors and attitudes. Results from this study indicate that...

The present study used a sample of 8,096 dating couples from the United States to explore how sexual desire discrepancy was associated with relationship satisfaction and stability. Sexual desire discrepancy was the difference between an individual's desired level of sexual intercourse and the actual frequency of sexual intercourse within a given re...

This study offers the first research data on the interest of divorcing parents in marital reconciliation. A sample of 2,484 divorcing parents was surveyed after taking required parenting classes. They were asked about whether they believed their marriage could still be saved with hard work, and about their interest in reconciliation services. About...

Very little is known about the influence of sexual timing on relationship outcomes. Is it better to test sexual compatibility as early as possible or show sexual restraint so that other areas of the relationship can develop? In this study, we explore this question with a sample of 2035 married individuals by examining how soon they became sexually...

In this study, we explore the relationship between attitudes toward both marriage and cohabitation and sexual experience during emerging adulthood. Results from 990 emerging adults indicated only moderate evidence that marital attitudes are related to sexual experience but strong evidence of a relationship between attitudes toward cohabitation and...

Although previous research has suggested that college housing impacts student behavior and outcomes, recent research linking college housing to risk-taking has been limited. In this study, we investigate if patterns of risk behavior differ based on the type of college housing environment students reside in. This study utilizes 510 college students...

The current study seeks to address the implicit assumption in the developmental literature that marital attitudes are static by investigating how various marital attitudes might change across adolescence. Longitudinal change for three marital attitudes in relation to family structure, educational aspirations, race and gender are examined. Utilizing...

This study examined emerging adults' criteria for marriage readiness and explored how these criteria are associated with their current attitudes and behaviors. This article establishes the psychometric value of the Criteria for Marriage Readiness Questionnaire and reports on a study of 788 emerging adults recruited from five college sites across th...

Many universities have changed their policies regarding the nature of on-campus housing—shifting from gender-specific to coed dorms. This study examines the scope of that transition in the United States. From a sampling of 100 universities in the United States, including the nation's 50 largest universities, it was found that the vast majority of o...

The impact that desire to marry has on risk-taking behaviors during emerging adulthood is examined in the current investigation using nationally representative data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Looking both at the simple relationships between desire to marry and risk-taking behaviors, as well as the possib...

This article presents a marital horizon theory of emerging adulthood that posits that young people's perceptions of marriage are central factors in determining subgroup differences in the length of emerging adulthood as well as the specific behaviors that occur during this period in the family life cycle. The model was tested with a sample of 813 e...

We offer a framework to help marriage educators think more thoroughly, systematically, and creatively about intervention opportunities to strengthen marriage. We draw attention to the educational dimensions of content, intensity, methods, timing, setting, target, and delivery, and their implications for marriage education. Our discussion points out...