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From Bad to Worse? Pornography Consumption, Spousal Religiosity, Gender, and Marital Quality
Abstract
Pornography consumption is consistently associated with lower marital quality. Scholars have theorized that embeddedness within a religious community may exacerbate the negative association between pornography use and marital quality because of greater social or psychic costs to porn viewing. As a test and extension of this theory, I examine how being married to a religiously devout spouse potentially moderates the link between respondents' reported pornography consumption and their marital satisfaction. Data are taken from the 2006 Portraits of American Life Study. In the main effects, porn consumption is negatively related to marital satisfaction, while spousal religiosity is positively related to marital satisfaction. Interaction effects reveal, however, that spousal religiosity intensifies the negative effect of porn viewing on marital satisfaction. These effects are robust whether marital satisfaction is operationalized as a scale or with individual measures and whether spousal religiosity is measured with respondents' evaluations their spouses' religiosity or spouses' self-reported religiosity measures. The effects are also similar for both husbands and wives. I argue that for married Americans, having a religiously committed spouse increases the social and psychic costs of porn consumption such that marital satisfaction decreases more drastically as a result.
... Replicated findings of the sort have led to increased empirical attention to this subset of religious individuals that struggle to abstain from using pornography despite morally disapproving of its use [16,17]. Over time, research has made a compelling case that pornography use has unique consequences for the religious in terms of relationship quality [18][19][20], sexual satisfaction [21••], psychological distress [22,23], and religious and spiritual struggle [24,25]. Research has also demonstrated religiosity and associated moral perceptions as factors that significantly influence estimates of pornography use across samples and inflates perceptions of addiction [26,27], which points to the role of religious context and moral perception in pathologizing sexual behavior (e.g., self-identify as being addicted to pornography). ...
... Sixteen of the studies reported sexual orientation, with three of these studies being limited to only heterosexual participants [39,40,42] and the remaining studies including participants of various sexual orientations (k = 13). Seven studies used samples consisting of only participants who were married or in committed relationships [18,31,[41][42][43][44][45]. ...
... Several studies were focused on how religion and practices associated with religiosity (e.g., religious service attendance) influence pornography consumption (k = 9). Collectively, findings tended to demonstrate that conservative religious Americans who pray and attend religious services more often are less likely to view pornography or use it at lower frequencies [14,18,43]. ...
Purpose of the Review
Pornography use itself and research related to pornography use remain controversial topics, due in large part to the morally charged subject matter. Given the historical relationship between religion and sexual morality, an argument could be made for attributing some of the contemporary increases in empirical attention to pornography, and thus some of the most substantial advances in research regarding its effects, to public outcry or moral panic. Due to a general lack of consensus among pornography researchers and contrasting findings regarding the potential for pornography use to be problematic or addictive, the last 5 years of pornography research is marked by increased attention to the impact of context and individual differences when assessing pornography use effects. Particularly, researchers have provided compelling evidence that differences in religious and moral values regarding sexual behavior can impact estimates of pornography use and perceptions regarding the problematic or addictive nature of pornography. Considering recent findings, a systematic review of recent research (within the past 5 years) on how religion and morality shape pornography use effects was conducted, with a particular focus on findings regarding pornography problems due to moral incongruence.
Recent Findings
Fifty-one articles were included in the present review. Findings demonstrate religiousness, moral disapproval, and moral incongruence as robust, strong predictors of various problems regarding pornography (e.g., psychological distress, relational problems, perceived addiction).
Summary
Collectively, results underscore the impact of contextual factors, particularly differences in religious or moral beliefs regarding pornography use, on perceptions regarding the problematic or addictive nature of pornography and demonstrate moral incongruence as strong predictor of perceived pornography problems.
... Recently, a number of studies have been focused on both the possible positive and the negative influences of pornography use on relationship satisfaction (Jafarzadeh Fadaki, & Amani, 2015;Kohut et al., 2017;Perry, 2016). For example, longitudinal research suggests that pornography use may be associated with reduced relationship quality, stability, and satisfaction (Muusses, Kerkhof, & Finkenauer, 2015;Perry, 2017c, Perry, 2018bPerry & Davis, 2017;Perry & Schleifer, 2018). ...
... A review of the relevant research on the impact of pornography use on relationship satisfaction suggests that the degree to which pornography use is associated with adverse relationship outcomes, such as negative impacts on romantic partner satisfaction (Doran & Price, 2014;Manning, 2006;Perry, 2016Perry, , 2017bTarver, 2010) and romantic partner separation (Duffy et al., 2016;Perry & Schleifer, 2018), may be contingent on the extent of use and the degree to which individuals morally disapprove of their use (Perry, 2018a). Added support for the claim that pornography consumption is a liability in terms of relationship conflict can be seen in a study by Doran and Price (2014) which, using a large sample of 20,000 married adults, demonstrated that those who indicated that they viewed pornography within the last year were 25% more likely to be separated, 12% less likely to indicate being happily married, and twice as likely to have an affair. ...
... In addition, when Perry (2016) tested spousal religiosity as a moderating factor between pornography use and marital satisfaction, results suggested that the negative effect of pornography use on marital satisfaction was higher when the spouse was more religiously devout. As such, the degree to which romantic partners hold views against pornography use may influence the degree to which pornography use is associated with decreased marital satisfaction (Perry, 2016). ...
Using an online sample of participants that reported using pornography in the last six months and being in a committed relationship, support was found for a moderated mediation model in which sexual shame and sexual satisfaction mediated the relationship between pornography use and couple satisfaction; this indirect effect was moderated by participants’ level of moral disapproval of pornography. Findings suggest that pornography use amongst those who morally disapprove of its use is associated with increased sexual shame, which is associated with decreased sexual satisfaction, leading to subsequent reductions in couple satisfaction. Results expand upon the branch of pornography literature suggesting that the association between pornography use and adverse intra- and interpersonal consequences are conditioned on the degree to which users morally disapprove of their use.
... Some preliminary research with convenience samples of undergraduates, for example, finds that persons who believe themselves to be "addicted" to pornography are more likely to report feelings of psychological distress, regardless of how often they actually view pornography (Grubbs et al. 2015b(Grubbs et al. , 2015c. Other studies in this vein find that undergraduates who are more religious are more likely to view themselves as "addicted" to pornography, and more likely to report "spiritual struggles" as a result, even though they tend view pornography less often than others (Grubbs et al. 2015a;2016). While these researchers focus on the mechanism of labeling behavior as "addictive," I propose that the more fundamental issue represented within these preliminary findings is that the connection between pornography use and poorer mental health are likely contingent on one's (negative) moral evaluation of their own behavior. ...
... Among the correlates often associated with pornography use-along with being younger, male, less religious, higher SES, more politically liberal, and more sexually permissive (see Peter and Valkenburg 2016;Perry 2016Perry , 2017Wright 2013)-persons who use pornography more often are consistently found to exhibit symptoms of poorer mental health and symptoms of depression particular. Notably, much of this finding may be due to the fact that studies are often drawing on clinical samples (Kafka 2000;Stein et al. 2001) or samples of individuals who have otherwise already conceived of their porn use as problematic (Cooper et al. 2001). ...
... Notably, much of this finding may be due to the fact that studies are often drawing on clinical samples (Kafka 2000;Stein et al. 2001) or samples of individuals who have otherwise already conceived of their porn use as problematic (Cooper et al. 2001). Others are based on samples of adolescents who, due to common physical and social transitions in their life course, might already be disposed to experiencing bouts of emotional instability (Owens et al. 2012;Peter and Valkenburg 2006, 2016Wolak et al. 2007). Nevertheless, while researchers have consistently identified an association between porn use and depressive symptoms in these samples, the nature of the relationship is not well understood. ...
While studies have consistently observed an association between pornography use and depressive symptoms, data limitations have precluded understanding the nature of this relationship. Drawing on data from a representative panel study of American adults, and building on insights from stress process theory, this article demonstrates that the connection between pornography use and depressive symptoms hinges on (1) the (in)congruence between Americans' moral beliefs about pornography and their viewing practices and (2) gender. Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses reveal that American men (not women) who believe viewing pornography is always immoral but watch it anyway are more likely to experience depressive symptoms compared to others who do not report this incongruence. Results also suggest the connection between viewing pornography and depressive symptoms is bi-directional, contingent on men's moral evaluation of its use. For male porn users who morally reject it, pornography use predicts depressive symptoms at low frequencies, likely stemming from cognitive stress or dissonance. For those who do not morally reject porn, however, only viewing it at the highest frequencies is associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms, which suggests reverse causation―depressed men likely view higher levels of pornography as a coping aid, especially they do not view it as immoral.
... Empirical findings have lent support to the idea that pornography use may negatively influence relationships in these ways. Cross-sectionalandlongitudinalstudies,forexample,havelinked consistent pornography use to men's lower sexual satisfaction (Bridges & Morokoff, 2011;Grov et al., 2011;Sun et al., 2016;Yucel & Gassanov, 2010) or marital satisfaction in general (Doran & Price, 2014;Muusses, Kerkhof, & Finkenauer, 2015;Perry, 2016Perry, , 2017aStack,Wasserman,&Kern,2004).Butthisfindingisnotnecessarily exclusive to men. In a series of experimental and qualitative studies with majority-female samples, Lambert, Negash, Stillman, Olmstead, and Fincham (2012) found that watching pornography led to lower relationship commitment and satisfaction with characteristics of one's romantic partner, including their physical appearance, affection, and sexual curiosity or performance. ...
... Analyses included a variety of sociodemographic and ideological controls following previous research on marital separation and divorce (Amato, 2010;Glass & Levchak, 2014) as well as pornography use and relationship outcomes (Doran & Price, 2014;Maddox et al., 2011;Perry, 2016;2017a;Perry & Davis, 2017;Perry & Schleifer, 2017;. In order to ensure that all controls temporally precede the experience of a marital separation between 2006 and 2012, all controls werefromthe2006wave. 2 Becausebothpornographyuseandmarital separation due to difficulties could stem from problems already present in a marriage, the multivariate models included controls for marital happiness and sexual satisfaction in 2006. ...
... Religious factors are highly correlated with both pornography use (Doring, 2009;Perry,2015Perry, ,2016Perry, ,2017bPerry, ,2017cPerry &Hayward, 2017;Poulsen et al., 2013;Wright, 2013;Wright et al., 2013) andmarriageoutcomes (Glass& Levchak, 2014;Mahoney, 2010;Perry, 2016), and thus the analyses controlled for religious commitment, conservatism, and tradition. Religious commitment was measured with religious service attendance. ...
As pornography use continues to increase in the United States, studies have sought to understand its potential influence on marital relationships. Yet, the primary focus of such studies has been pornography's association with marital quality, not stability. Consequently, we still know relatively little about whether pornography consumption at one time predicts marital disruption later on. Drawing on data from the 2006 and 2012 waves of the nationally representative Portraits of American Life Study (N = 445), this article examined whether married Americans who viewed pornography in 2006, either at all or in greater frequencies, were more likely to experience a marital separation by 2012. Binary logistic regression analyses showed that married Americans who viewed pornography at all in 2006 were more than twice as likely as those who did not view pornography to experience a separation by 2012, even after controlling for 2006 marital happiness and sexual satisfaction as well as relevant sociodemographic correlates. The relationship between pornography use frequency and marital separation, however, was technically curvilinear. The likelihood of marital separation by 2012 increased with 2006 pornography use to a point and then declined at the highest frequencies of pornography use. Ancillary analyses, however, showed that this group of married Americans with high frequencies of 2006 pornography viewing and low likelihood of later marital separation were not statistically distinguishable from either abstainers or moderate viewers in terms of marital separation likelihood. All findings held regardless of gender. Data limitations and implications for future research are discussed.
... Only rarely, however, have studies considered how race influences the "demand side" of pornography-namely, patterns of pornography viewership-and what these patterns reveal about American society more broadly. While the few studies of pornography consumption that have included measures of racial identity often show similar results (Brown & L'Engle, 2009;Buzzell, 2005;Hennessey et al., 2009;Patterson & Price, 2012;Perry, 2016;Wright, 2013;Wright, Bae, Funk, 2013), to our knowledge no study has considered how the connection 1 The term "pornography" is difficult to define, and can often carry pejorative moral connotations that are not intended here. While some opt to use more neutral terms like "sexually explicit media," the majority of studies on the topic still prefer "pornography" and thus we use the term. ...
... Though they did not interpret their findings, Patterson and Price's (2012) analysis of 1973 GSS data also showed that both black men and women were more likely than whites to report viewing an X-rated movie in the previous year. Looking at pornography viewing frequency, Perry's (2016) analysis of 2006 Portraits of American Life Study data showed that black Americans reported viewing pornography more often than white Americans, but Asian Americans reported viewing pornography less often. And while they did not disaggregate racial categories beyond white and "non-white" (a composite category of "black" and "other"), or control for any confounding factors, Wright and his colleagues (Wright, 2013;Wright et al., 2013) found using 1973-2010 GSS data that non-white men and women were more likely to report viewing X-rated movies than whites, but primarily in later waves of the GSS, suggesting that this white/non-white difference in pornography viewership may be growing more pronounced over time. ...
... Despite the recent resurgence of sociological research suggesting an underlying biological reality to racial categories (and stemming from this, behavioral differences) (Guo et al., 2014;Shaio et al., 2012), we reject the notion that racial disparities in sexual consumption somehow evidence different essential or biological drives that inhere within "racial groups," which are socially constructed and arbitrarily defined (see Morning, 2014). Moreover, while structural inequalities such as, for example, relatively less parental oversight due to a disproportionate number of single parent families might explain the higher exposure to sexual media among black adolescents (Brown & L'Engle, 2009;Hennessy et al., 2009), this would not account for racial disparities in sexual consumption among American adults, especially after class characteristics had been held constant (Patterson & Price, 2012;Perry, 2016). Our theorizing, then, starts from the assumption that sexual norms and behavioral patterns are not only socially learned, but strongly influenced by our location within social environments that are both racialized and gendered. ...
While some research has uncovered racial differences in patterns of pornography viewership, no studies to date have considered how these patterns may be changing over time or how these trends may be moderated by other key predictors of pornography viewership, specifically, gender and religion. Using nationally representative data from the 1973-2016 General Social Surveys (N = 20,620), and taking into account different ethno-religious histories with pornography as a moral issue, we examine how race, gender, and religion intersect to influence trends in pornography viewership over 43 years. Analyses reveal that black Americans in general are more likely to view pornography than whites, and they are increasing in their pornography viewership at a higher rate than whites. Moreover, black men are more likely to consume pornography than all other race-gender combinations, but only differ from white women in their increasing rate of pornography viewership. Lastly, frequent worship attendance only moderates trends in pornography viewership for white men. By contrast, regardless of attendance frequency, black men and women show increasing rates of pornography use while white women show flat rates. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for research on the intersections of race, gender, religion, and sexuality.
... There is a burgeoning research literature examining the connection between pornography use and heterosexual relationship outcomes (for reviews, see Campbell & Kohut, 2017;Manning, 2006;Newstrom & Harris, 2016;Rasmussen, 2016). Though there are some exceptions, studies have most consistently found that, on the whole, pornography use-either at all or in higher frequencies-is negatively associated with various measures of relationship quality for those in dating or marriage relationships, and particularly for men (e.g., Bridges & Morokoff, 2011;Doran & Price, 2014;Lambert, Negash, Stillman, Olmstead, & Fincham, 2012;Minarcik, Wetterneck, & Short, 2016;Morgan, 2011;Muusses, Kerkhof, & Finkenauer, 2015;Perry, 2016Perry, , 2017aPerry & Davis, 2017;Poulsen, Busby, & Galovan, 2013;Stack, Wasserman, & Kern, 2004;Yucel & Gassanov, 2010). The exceptions to this trend are situations in which heterosexual couples are viewing pornography together rather than one partner (most often the man) viewing in isolation (e.g. ...
... Bridges & Morokoff, 2011;Maddox, Rhoades, & Markman, 2011;Minarcik et al., 2016;Poulsen et al., 2013). Coupled use of sexually explicit material, however, is far less common than solo use (Maddox et al., 2011), which would help explain why the overall association is negative (Doran & Price, 2014;Perry, 2016Perry, , 2017a. ...
... These authors theorize that, for Americans embedded in moral communities that oppose pornography use, viewing pornography has greater "psychic costs," and thus affects the religious more strongly. More recently, Perry (2016) showed that the association between pornography use and marital quality was stronger for married Americans with religiously devout spouses. While Perry's finding could also be attributed to religious spouses punishing their spouses who view pornography, rather than moral incongruence per se, elsewhere, Perry and Snawder (2017) also demonstrated that the negative associations between pornography use and measures of parent-child relationship quality were stronger for more frequent worship attendees. ...
Studies often report a negative association between pornography use and marital quality. A number of studies, however, find this negative association to be stronger among religious Americans, suggesting that "moral incongruence" may be a key moderating factor. This theory is tested with panel data from the nationally representative 2006-2012 Portraits of American Life Study (N = 612). Support for the theory is mixed. Any pornography use in 2006 predicts lower marital quality in 2012 regardless of whether the viewer felt pornography use was always immoral. However, among pornography viewers, the negative association between marital quality and viewing frequency is stronger for those who morally oppose pornography. Findings hold regardless of gender. Data limitations and implications for future research are discussed.
... As pornography use has continued to increase around the world, owing largely to the rise of the Internet and smartphone technology, a burgeoning literature has sought to understand its potential implications for various measures of intrapersonal and relational well-being (for recent reviews and meta-analyses, see Campbell & Kohut, 2017;Newstrom & Harris, 2016;Peter & Valkenburg, 2016;Rasmussen, 2016;Wright, Tokunaga, & Kraus, 2016;Wright, Tokunaga, Kraus, & Klann, 2017b). Among the more consistent findings of this research (while not always establishing causal direction) has been that those who view pornography more often tend to report lower levels of sexual satisfaction, and that this is particularly true for men (Bridges and Morokoff, 2011;Cranney & Stulhofer, 2017;Morgan, 2011;Muusses, Kerkhof, & Finkenauer, 2015;Poulsen, Busby, & Galovan, 2013;Perry, 2016;Sun, Bridges, Johnason, & Ezzell, 2016;Szymanski & Stewart-Richardson, 2014;Traeen & Daneback, 2013;Yucel & Gassanov, 2010;Wright, Sun, Steffen, & Tokunaga, 2017a;Wright et al., 2017b;Zillmann & Bryant, 1988). ...
... While a general (though often untested) assumption within much of the pornography research has been that pornography use itself may influence human well-being and relationships in negative ways (Campbell & Kohut, 2017), several recent studies have found that the negative association between pornography use and various intrapersonal or relationship outcomes tends to be stronger among Americans who are more closely connected to a religious community (Doran & Price, 2014;Patterson & Price, 2012;Perry, 2016;Perry & Snawder, 2017). These findings suggest that it is not pornography use per se that is influencing personal satisfaction and relationships primarily, but rather the experience of what may be called "moral incongruence," that is, engaging in an activity that violates the sacred values of oneself and one's community. ...
... While the association between pornography use and sexual satisfaction has received considerable attention, the relationship between religion and sexual satisfaction is far less understood. Though Burke (2016) has recently shown how having a satisfying sex life has become a major theme among committed Christians, most studies looking at religious commitment (measured as worship attendance or self-reported religious salience) and sexual satisfaction, have found no significant association (Bridges & Morokoff, 2011;Davidson et al., 1995;Hackathorn et al., 2016;Morgan, 2011;Perry, 2016). Findings from other studies have painted conflicting pictures. ...
Research has often demonstrated a negative association between pornography use and various intrapersonal and relationship outcomes, particularly for men. Several recent studies, however, have suggested that the negative association between pornography use and these indicators is stronger among more religious Americans, suggesting that moral incongruence (engaging in an activity that violates one's sacred values) and the attendant shame or cognitive dissonance, rather than the pornography use per se, may be the primary factor at work. The current study tested and extended this theory by examining how religion potentially moderates the link between pornography use and sexual satisfaction in a national random sample of American adults (N=1,501). Analyses demonstrated that, while pornography use was negatively associated with sexual satisfaction for American men (not women), among men who rarely attended religious services or held a low opinion of the Bible, this negative association essentially disappeared. Conversely, the negative association between frequency of pornography consumption and sexual satisfaction was more pronounced for men with stronger ties to conventional religion. These findings suggest that the connection between pornography use and sexual satisfaction, especially for men, depends largely on what viewing pornography means to the consumer and their moral community, and less so on the practice itself.
... Religious pornography users report experiencing greater levels of depression in daily life (Nelson et al., 2010), lower levels of subjective happiness (Patterson & Price, 2012) and sexual satisfaction (Perry & Whitehead, 2018), greater levels of relational distress (Leonhardt, Willoughby, & Young-Petersen, 2017;Perry, 2016), poorer quality in family relationships (Doran & Price, 2014;Perry, 2016;Perry & Snawder, 2017), and, as we explore below, greater levels of perceived addiction to pornography. ...
... Religious pornography users report experiencing greater levels of depression in daily life (Nelson et al., 2010), lower levels of subjective happiness (Patterson & Price, 2012) and sexual satisfaction (Perry & Whitehead, 2018), greater levels of relational distress (Leonhardt, Willoughby, & Young-Petersen, 2017;Perry, 2016), poorer quality in family relationships (Doran & Price, 2014;Perry, 2016;Perry & Snawder, 2017), and, as we explore below, greater levels of perceived addiction to pornography. ...
... It is likely that social and relational aspects of religion may impact how individuals experience their own pornography use. Indeed, some research suggests that familial religiousness does impact personal use of pornography (Perry, 2016(Perry, , 2017dRasmussen & Bierman, 2017). Collectively, these types of nuances around religiousness more broadly suggest that there is a greater need for research specifically examining the aspects of religiousness (both intrapersonally and interpersonally) that are likely to promote greater feelings of moral incongruence around pornography use. ...
Internet pornography use (IPU) remains a controversial topic within sexual behavior research fields. Whereas some people report feeling dysregulated in their use of pornography, mental health and medical communities are divided as to whether or not IPU can be addictive. The present review seeks to examine this issue more closely, with a focus on how variables other than pornography use, such as moral disapproval and moral incongruence (i.e., feeling as if one’s behaviors and one’s values about those behaviors are misaligned) might specifically contribute to self-perceived problems around pornography use. Through an examination of recent literature, the present work reviews evidence that moral incongruence about IPU is a common phenomenon
and that it is associated with outcomes relevant to current debates about pornography addiction. Specifically, moral incongruence regarding IPU appears to be associated with greater distress about IPU, greater psychological distress in general, greater reports of problems related to IPU, and greater reports of perceived addiction to IPU. The implications of this body of evidence for both clinical and research communities are discussed, and future directions for research are considered.
... Moving beyond moral incongruence specifically, there is also a large body of research now suggesting that religious individuals who use pornography-for whom moral incongruence is likely implied-also report a diverse range of distressing symptoms associated with their use. Religious pornography users report experiencing greater levels of depression in daily life (Nelson et al., 2010), lower levels of subjective happiness (Patterson & Price, 2012) and sexual satisfaction (Perry & Whitehead, 2018), greater levels of relational distress (Leonhardt, Willoughby, & Young-Petersen, 2017;Perry, 2016), poorer quality in family relationships (Doran & Price, 2014;Perry, 2016;Perry & Snawder, 2017), and, as we explore in the next section, greater levels of perceived addiction to pornography. ...
... Moving beyond moral incongruence specifically, there is also a large body of research now suggesting that religious individuals who use pornography-for whom moral incongruence is likely implied-also report a diverse range of distressing symptoms associated with their use. Religious pornography users report experiencing greater levels of depression in daily life (Nelson et al., 2010), lower levels of subjective happiness (Patterson & Price, 2012) and sexual satisfaction (Perry & Whitehead, 2018), greater levels of relational distress (Leonhardt, Willoughby, & Young-Petersen, 2017;Perry, 2016), poorer quality in family relationships (Doran & Price, 2014;Perry, 2016;Perry & Snawder, 2017), and, as we explore in the next section, greater levels of perceived addiction to pornography. ...
... It is likely that social and relational aspects of religion may impact how individuals experience their own pornography use. Indeed, some research suggests that familial religiousness does impact personal use of pornography (Perry, 2016Rasmussen & Bierman, 2017). Collectively, these types of nuances around religiousness more broadly suggest there is a greater need for research specifically examining the aspects of religiousness (both intrapersonally and interpersonally) that are likely to promote greater feelings of moral incongruence around pornography use. ...
Internet pornography use (IPU) remains a controversial topic within sexual behavior research fields. Whereas some people report feeling dysregulated in their use of pornography, mental health and medical communities are divided as to whether or not IPU can be addictive. The present review seeks to examine this issue more closely, with a focus on how variables other than pornography use, such as moral disapproval and moral incongruence (i.e., feeling as if one’s behaviors and one’s values about those behaviors are misaligned) might specifically contribute to self-perceived problems around pornography use. Through an examination of recent literature, the present work reviews evidence that moral incongruence about IPU is a common phenomenon and that it is associated with outcomes relevant to current debates about pornography addiction. Specifically, moral incongruence regarding IPU appears to be associated with greater distress about IPU, greater psychological distress in general, greater reports of problems related to IPU, and greater reports of perceived addiction to IPU. The implications of this body of evidence for both clinical and research communities are discussed, and future directions for research are considered.
... Numerous studies have focused on the relationship between pornography consumption and marital struggles (Doran & Price, 2014;Manning, 2006;Perry, 2017b) and its impact on relationship quality and satisfaction (Lambert, Negash, Stillman, Olmstead, & Fincham, 2012;Maddox et al., 2011;Minarcik, Wetterneck, & Short, 2016;Poulsen, Busby, & Galovan, 2013;Resch & Alderson, 2014;Stack, Wasserman, & Kern, 2004;Willoughby et al., 2016;Zitzman & Butler, 2009). Additional studies have investigated the impact of pornography consumption on sexual satisfaction (Bridges & Morokoff, 2011;Muusses et al., 2015;Stewart & Szymanski, 2012;Yucel & Gassanov, 2010), religiosity (Bridges & Morokoff, 2011;Chisholm & Gall, 2015;Perry, 2016Perry, , 2017cShort, Kasper, & Wetterneck, 2015), and women's emotional and psychological well being (Bergner & Bridges, 2002;Bridges, Bergner, & Hesson-McInnis, 2003;Stewart & Szymanski, 2012;Szymanski, Feltman, & Dunn, 2015;Tylka & Kroon van Diest, 2015). The findings of this research reveal overwhelming negative trends and outcomes for individuals, couples, and families as a consequence of pornography use; however, gender differences and interpersonal versus intrapersonal dissimilarities are noteworthy (Wright et al., 2017). ...
... The potential benefits identified include increased sexual frequency and knowledge, diminished sexual boredom, and an increased desire to be sexually adventurous and experiment within the relationship (Grov et al., 2011;Kohut et al., 2017;Lofgren-Martensen & Mansson, 2010;Weinberg et al., 2010). Conversely, however, pornography use is often found to precede marital problems (Bridges et al., 2003;Perry, 2016). It is associated with higher rates of infidelity and lower levels of commitment (Lambert et al., 2012;Newstrom & Harris, 2016), more positive attitudes toward extramarital sexual relationships (Wright et al., 2013(Wright et al., , 2014, increased emotional detachment (Cooper et al., 2001), and loss of trust and relationship security (Kohut et al., 2017;Zitzman & Butler, 2009). ...
... Research shows that spousal religiosity intensifies the negative effects of pornography use on marital satisfaction (Perry, 2016), such that a romantic partner's condemnation of her partner's use of pornography leads to reduced marital satisfaction for both husbands and wives. The impact of men's pornography consumption on their female partners is twofold: (a) if women evaluate their partner's use as negative, their partner is more likely to continue his use in a secretive manner, which discourages dyadic communication between partners; and (b) the pornography users are more likely to develop attitudes congruent with those of their spouse (i.e., moral disapproval). ...
Using an online sample of participants in committed relationships, support was found for a moderated mediation model in which depression mediated the relationship between pornography use and relationship satisfaction, and this indirect effect was moderated by level of moral disapproval. Results indicate that, among consumers of pornography, their level of moral disapproval exacerbates adverse intra- and interpersonal outcomes such as distress and decreased relationship satisfaction. These results extend the empirical literature that examines the conditional effects of moral disapproval of pornography use to relational outcomes.
... This also made more sense given that the measures for the GSS and RIA could not be combined into an index. Finally, this also allowed for more nuance into such associations that have been presented either with multi-item scales of relationship quality using PALS (Perry, 2016(Perry, , 2017a or GSS data presented only in aggregate, not by year (Doran & Price, 2014;Wright et al., 2017). ...
... The modal response for both married and unmarried participants was 1, and the mean response was around 4 = "Over 1 month ago." While slightly different in wording, responses to this RIA question yielded roughly comparable outcomes to those of the GSS, NFSS (Regnerus et al., 2016), and PALS (Perry 2016(Perry , 2017aPerry & Davis, 2017) suggesting sufficient continuity. ...
... Similarly, people with better relationship quality also tend to be male and higher socioeconomic status. Yet they are also more likely to be older, white, and religious (Doran & Price, 2014;Perry, 2016). ...
Numerous studies have examined the association between pornography use and various measures of relationship quality. Yet scholars have also pointed out the limitations of many such studies, including inconsistent findings for men and women, non-representative samples, and negatively-biased measures that could result in misleading findings. The purpose of this study was to establish a dominant pattern in the association between pornography use and relationship quality in a way that mitigated these issues. Data were taken from 30 nationally-representative surveys, which together included 31 measures of relationship quality: 1973-2018 General Social Surveys (1 repeated measure); 2006 Portraits of American Life Study (13 measures); 2012 New Family Structures Study (12 measures); and 2014 Relationships in America Survey (5 measures). This allowed for 57 independent tests examining the association between pornography use and relationship outcomes for married Americans and 29 independent tests for unmarried Americans. Along with bivariate associations, full regression models were estimated with sociodemographic controls and interaction terms for gender. For married and unmarried Americans alike, pornography use was either unassociated or negatively associated with nearly all relationship outcomes. Significant associations were mostly small in magnitude. Conversely, except for one unclear exception, pornography use was never positively associated with relationship quality. Associations were only occasionally moderated by gender, but in inconsistent directions. While this study makes no claims about causality, findings clearly affirmed that, in instances where viewing pornography is associated with relationship quality at all, it is nearly always a signal of poorer relationship quality, for men and women.
... Still today, studies show that Americans who are more religious and more theologically conservative are the most likely to oppose the distribution or use of pornography (Carroll et al., 2008;Grubbs, Exline, Pargament, Hook, & Carlisle, 2015;Hardy, Steelman, Coyne, & Ridge, 2013;Lykke & Cohen, 2015;MacInnis & Hodson, 2016;Nelson, Padilla-Walker, & Carroll, 2010;Patterson & Price, 2012). Concurrently, studies most often find that religiously committed and theologically conservative Americans are less likely to report viewing pornography than others (Carroll et al., 2008;Doran & Price, 2014;Hardy et al., 2013;MacInnis & Hodson, 2016;Maddox, Rhoades, & Markman, 2011;Perry, 2016Perry, , 2017a1 The term "pornography" can carry moral connotations that are unintended here. The term is used to be consistent with religious discourses on this type of media that oppose "pornography" by name, as well as with the data set used for this study. ...
... Foubert and Rizzo (2013) reported that extrinsic religiosity (i.e., religious engagement done for self-interested reasons) was actually positively associated with students viewing Internet pornography and listing more reasons to view pornography. Perry's (2016Perry's ( , 2017a studies of married Americans found that worship attendance was not a significant predictor of viewing pornography at all or more frequently. Other studies linking religiosity to pornography use have painted conflicting pictures. ...
... They theorize that religiously committed Americans, perhaps due to underlying personality factors like authoritarianism, may become preoccupied with the very sexual content they oppose and thus pursue it covertly. While this may be true to some extent, it does not account for the fact that, at the individual level, religiously committed and theologically conservative Americans do tend to report viewing porn at lower rates than other Americans (Patterson & Price, 2012;Regnerus, 2007;Stack et al., 2004;Wright, 2013;Wright, et al., 2013) even in studies where porn use is reported anonymously (e.g., Carroll et al., 2008;Hardy et al., 2013;MacInnis & Hodson, 2016;Perry, 2016Perry, , 2017aPoulsen, et al., 2013;Short et al., 2015). Chaves (2010) developed theoretical expectations surrounding what he calls "religious incongruence," based on his observation that individuals' beliefs and behaviors are often assumed to be congruent when in fact they may be highly variable. ...
Religious Americans, and conservative Protestants in particular, have historically been the most ardent opponents of pornography's production, dissemination, and use. And yet, while religiously committed and theologically conservative Americans are generally less likely to view pornography than others, the difference is often not as great or consistent as one might suppose given their strong moral stance. Drawing on insights from religious incongruence theory, this study considers whether religious commitment and theological conservatism predict a greater incongruence between what Americans say they believe about pornography morally and whether they actually watch it. Data are taken from the nationally representative 2006 Portraits of American Life Study (N=2,279). Analyses show that greater religious service attendance and prayer frequency are predictive of American men (not women) affirming that viewing pornography is " always morally wrong " while still viewing it in the previous year. Evangelicals and other sectarian Protestants are also the religious traditions most likely to believe pornography is always morally wrong while also viewing it. Findings ultimately suggest that religious commitment and affiliation with theological conservatism may influence Americans (primarily men) to oppose pornography more strongly in principal than reflected in actual practice. Data limitations and implications for future research are discussed.
... This may be because in relationships where pornography viewing runs counter to a couple's moral norms, the costs associated with viewing are higher (Perry, 2016). Viewer and partner religiosity, for instance, moderate the negative association between pornography viewing and relationship satisfaction-that is, as religious devotion increases, the negative relationship between viewing and indices of relationship satisfaction (e.g. ...
... Viewer and partner religiosity, for instance, moderate the negative association between pornography viewing and relationship satisfaction-that is, as religious devotion increases, the negative relationship between viewing and indices of relationship satisfaction (e.g. marital quality, sexual satisfaction) magnifies (Perry, 2016;Perry & Whitehead, 2019). This is unsurprising given pornography is frequently anathema within religious communities. ...
... Additionally, future studies might assess how partner perceptions of pornography affect communication about viewing and the likelihood of hiding it. As noted above, prior literature speaks to the importance of partner values in regards to pornography, in that partner religiosity moderates the negative relationship between viewing and relationship satisfaction (Perry, 2016). On the surface, it seems likely that consumers whose partners have no moral qualms with pornography would be more open about their viewing. ...
Pornography’s effects have received renewed attention, with particular concern about how viewing impacts committed partner relationships. Given that secrecy and deception about pornography viewing are linked with negative relationship outcomes, we sought to identify variables associated with persons’ endorsement of hiding it. We explored this in two studies. Results from a regression analysis suggest that consumer moral disapproval of pornography and experiences of shame were associated with hiding behavior. Results from a path analysis suggest that the positive relationship between sexual conservatism and endorsement of hiding viewing from one’s committed partner is mediated by both moral incongruence (associated with viewing) and perception that pornography causes a host of harms. Persons with moral qualms related to their viewing were especially likely to endorse hiding it if they were shame-prone. These findings point to the importance of sexual values and shame in relation to persons hiding their viewing; they also suggest that individuals who internalize messaging that pornography causes serious harms are more likely to keep their viewing secret. This suggests that practitioners, policymakers, and advocates need to be circumspect about their messaging, avoiding shame-inducing rhetoric, while keeping in mind the centrality of people’s values in informing attitudes and behaviors about pornography.
... Grubbs et al. (2015) found, for example, that religiosity, mediated through moral disapproval of pornography, is predictive of perception of addiction to it: that is, highly religious individuals are more likely to perceive they have an addiction to pornography, even when frequency of use is controlled for. Further, spousal religiosity exacerbates the adverse effects of pornography consumption on marital satisfaction (Perry 2016). This suggests that religious persons may not merely want to legislate against what they morally disagree with; rather, they may experience pornography as more destructive personally and familiarly than their non-religious peers, which may explain why they are more likely to support strong policy initiatives against it. ...
... This suggests that religious persons may not merely want to legislate against what they morally disagree with; rather, they may experience pornography as more destructive personally and familiarly than their non-religious peers, which may explain why they are more likely to support strong policy initiatives against it. This is in line with Perry's (2016) contention that the social and psychic costs of pornography consumption are greater in religious households. Fisher et al. (2018) suggest that policymakers may also be swayed by personal mores in crafting legislation pertaining to pornography: ''Political figures weighing in on pornography may possess moral reservations about pornography use by others that can only be balanced by expectations of pornography-induced harm and by supporting an entrenched narrative concerning pornography-induced damage to individuals and society'' (p. ...
Pornography has become an increasingly salient topic in public discourse. We sought to better understand the role of religiosity in shaping people’s support of policy stances against pornography, in the form of censorship, using nationally representative data from the 2014 General Social Survey (n = 1676). Results from logistic regression indicate that high religiosity significantly increases odds of supporting censorship. Holding control variables at their sample means, the least religious persons had a predicted probability of 0.09 of supporting censorship, compared to 0.57 for the most religious respondents. We discuss these findings within the context of the current public health debate.
... Frequent religious service attendance may exacerbate inverse relationships between marital quality and pornography use [49,65]. As spousal religiosity increases, inverse associations between marital satisfaction and pornography use may increase in magnitude in both women and men [65]. ...
... Frequent religious service attendance may exacerbate inverse relationships between marital quality and pornography use [49,65]. As spousal religiosity increases, inverse associations between marital satisfaction and pornography use may increase in magnitude in both women and men [65]. ...
Purpose of Review
The present review focuses on relationships between sexuality and religion, moral values, and ethics.
Recent Findings
Religious and ethical beliefs and moral values may influence sexuality including perception of pornography and its frequency of use, and engagement in sexual behaviors including pornography viewing may impact these domains.
Summary
Within this context, implications for sexuality and related psychiatric conditions and models (e.g., relating to compulsive sexual behavior disorder and moral incongruence) are considered.
... Applying this perspective to pornography use, following previous research (Grubbs et al. 2019;Hardy et al. 2013;Perry 2016), we would expect persons who are more religiously or politically conservative at the individual level to report lower pornography consumption patterns than those who are more religiously and politically liberal. However, we would also expect the broader religious and political context to moderate this trend. ...
... Model 1 is a typical individual-level model, predicting pornography viewing patterns using variables gathered from each respondent to the 2014 RIA Survey. The results found in this model correspond closely to much of the literature predicting pornography consumption at the individual level (Hardy et al. 2013;Perry 2016Perry , 2019Perry and Schleifer 2018). Being an evangelical is unassociated with more recent pornography consumption. ...
Recent studies have found that state-level religious and political conservatism is positively associated with various aggregate indicators of interest in pornography. Such studies have been limited, however, in that they either did not include data measuring actual consumption patterns and/or did not include data on individuals (risking the ecological fallacy). This study overcomes both limitations by incorporating state-level data with individual-level data and a measure of pornography consumption from a large nationally representative survey. Hierarchical linear regression analyses show that, in the main, state-level religious and political characteristics do not predict individual-level pornography consumption, and individual-level religiosity and political conservatism predict less recent pornography consumption. However, interactions between individual-level evangelical identity and state-level political conservatism indicate that evangelicals who live in more politically conservative states report the highest rates of pornography consumption. These findings thus provide more nuanced support for previous research linking religious and political conservatism with greater pornography consumption.
... Although religiosity may be associated with decreased use (Nelson et al., 2010;Short et al., 2015), religious individuals have still been shown to use pornography (Perry, 2019) and the predictive relationship between use and distress is more pronounced among this population (Guidry et al., 2020;Patterson & Price, 2012). Research also underscores religiosity as a factor that significantly influences estimates of pornography use across samples (Kohut et al., 2020;Perry, 2016Perry, , 2018. In a recent study by Grubbs et al. (2019b), using a nationally representative sample (N = 2075), findings showed that 22% of participants that reported a lifetime history of pornography use also reported experiencing moral incongruence. ...
... Research has focused on each of these PPMI distress domains, with studies assessing the influence of moral incongruence on psychological distress (Grubbs et al., 2015b(Grubbs et al., , 2015cPerry, 2018), romantic partner outcomes Guidry et al., 2020;Perry, 2016;Perry & Whitehead, 2019), and religious and spiritual struggle Wilt et al., 2016). ...
Researchers focused on the model of pornography problems due to moral incongruence (PPMI) have suggested that perceptions of addiction, stemming from a misalignment between one's moral values and online sexual behavior, may lead to heightened sexual shame. Even so, it has been suggested that the associations found in previous models of PPMI may have been inflated by the inclusion of the emotional distress subscale in the widely used Cyber Pornography Use Inventory (CPUI-9), leading many to use the abridged 4-item version (i.e., the CPUI-4), which excludes emotional distress. Prior models assessing sexual shame have yet to fully address this potential methodological limitation. Considering advances in the conceptualization of PPMI and recommendations concerning best practices, a sample of participants (N = 296) that reported using pornography in the last six months was utilized to compare findings from two moderated mediation models. The first model assessed the differential strength of effects when the subscales of the CPUI-9 were assessed as separate mediators of the associations between moral incongruence and sexual shame, while the second model examined whether such associations persisted when using the recommended CPUI-4. Model results provide further justification for previous findings, indicating that associations between constructs were not the sole result of emotional distress, which supports the utility of the CPUI-4 in models that include sexual shame. Findings provide added support for sexual shame as a unique outcome among those who, due to moral incongruence, perceive that they are addicted to Internet pornography.
... These studies have shown that consuming pornography, particularly for men, is associated with decrements in relationship satisfaction, commitment, and sexual satisfaction (e.g., Brown et al. 2017;Stewart and Szymanski 2012). Studies have shown that some individuals are drawn to pornography consumption because it is a mood elevator or because their needs are not being met in their current relationship (Muusses et al. 2015;Perry 2016). Yet, other researchers have found benefits and drawbacks of pornography consumption for relationship quality (Minarcik et al. 2016;Newstrom and Harris 2016) or null 1 3 Pornography Use and Virginity Status: Examining the… effects of pornography on relationship quality (Harper and Hodgins 2016;Resch and Alderson 2014;Veit et al. 2017). ...
... Because this study contains mostly female participants, it may be likely that women report more commitment in their relationships due to consuming pornography with the purpose of applying their consumption to their own relationship. Additionally, pornography consumption is linked to elevated moods when one's sexual needs are not being met in their relationship (Muusses et al. 2015;Perry 2016). However, if an individual engages in a positive sexual activity that relieves stress, particularly in their romantic relationships, there may be less of a need to consume pornography. ...
Few studies have examined the influence of pornography consumption based on virginity status. Therefore, this study examines the associations between pornography consumption and emerging adult sexual and relationship development based on virginity status. Quantitative data comes from 133 emerging adults (85.7% female; Mean age: 21.24; 24.1% virgins). Qualitative data comes from 21 participants. Results illustrated that pornography consumption was not associated with virgins’ affectionate and sexual behaviors. Additionally, pornography consumption was marginally associated with increased commitment for non-virgins’ romantic quality. Qualitative analyses revealed that consuming pornography provided unrealistic sex expectations or material to improve sexual experiences. Pornography may have mixed effects on emerging adult development.
... Recent literature also suggests there are important contextual effects. Perry (2016), for instance, found that spousal religiosity moderates the relationship between marital satisfaction and pornography consumption: that is, the negative relationship between the two is magnified by spousal religiosity. ...
... Utilizing a biopsychosocial approach, social workers can bring a more comprehensive and balanced perspective to the pornography debate. The growing body of literature suggests the effects of pornography are contextual: that is, pornography affects people differently depending on individual attributes, personal values, and social contexts (e.g., Perry, 2016Perry, , 2017. For this reason, when engaging in assessment, treatment, and advocacy, social workers need to be sensitive and deliberate about messaging, staying cognizant of personal backgrounds and biases, so as not to paradoxically harm clients in an effort to help them. ...
Summary: The effects of pornography have received increased scrutiny in the digital age. Several U.S. states have recently passed resolutions declaring pornography a public health crisis, and clients are increasingly seeking help for related concerns. Given the pornography debate encompasses micro and macro arenas, social workers have reason to be engaged. But there is a dearth of literature examining social workers’ views on these issues. Given values play an integral role in informing attitudes about sexuality, we sought to better understand the role of religiosity in shaping social work students’
views on pornography via a web-based survey (n = 136).
Findings: Results from a path analysis suggest highly religious students are more likely to believe pornography is a serious public health issue, and this relationship is mediated through their perception of pornography’s addictiveness.
Applications: That highly religious social work students are more likely to pathologize pornography has implications for policy advocacy and clinical social work practice. If highly religious social workers are more likely to rate pornography as addictive, they may be more likely to pathologize their clients’ use of it. This is significant in that addiction is a heavy label that may harm clients. Our findings further speak to the importance of educating social work students and practitioners about reflexivity, not only in the context of individual practice but also in the macro practice arena. We argue that staying cognizant of their biases and utilizing a biopsychosocial perspective, social workers can bring a valuable perspective to the pornography debate.
... One subtheme of writing about satisfaction was that 'Higher frequencies of SEM use were associated with less sexual and relationship satisfaction' (Morgan 2011, 520). Several articles in the sample were interested in this topic and provided similar findings (Stewart and Szymanski 2012;Poulsen, Busby, and Galovan 2013;Perry 2016). There is confusion in the articles analyzed about the role of causality in this association. ...
... (Fadaki and Amani 2015, 245;Psychiatry, Psychology) The data was consistent with the notion that more gender role conflict leads to more anxious and avoidant attachment styles which in turn lead to more pornography use which in turn leads to less relationship quality and less sexual satisfaction. (Szymanski and Stewart-Richardson 2014, 76;Psychology) Within this subtheme, researchers also examined the role of a number of intervening variables in the relationship between pornography use and relationship satisfaction, including 'discrepancies' between partners in pornography use rather than simply frequencies of pornography consumption (Willoughby et al. 2016), attachment styles (Gouvernet et al. 2017), and religiosity (Perry 2016). ...
A systematic review of literature on the relationship between consumption of pornography and sexual pleasure found two approaches. One examines masturbatory pleasure produced by engagement with pornography and finds that both men and women take pleasure from pornography consumption (although for women in particular this can create conflicting reactions). A second, more dominant, approach investigates whether pornography consumption is associated with subsequent sexual pleasure with a partner. It is notable that even in a sample of articles curated to understand pleasure, there is more research into satisfaction than pleasure and, in particular, relationship satisfaction.
... Manning, 2006;Perry, 2016;Wright, Bridges, Sun, Ezzell, & Johnson, 2018;Zitzman & Butler, 2009), and even opposition to affirmative action for women (Wright & Funk, 2014). Although researchers have identified several negative correlates with pornography viewing frequency, some studies have also indicated positive associations such as improved sexual functioning (Bridges & Morokoff, 2011), increased awareness of partner's needs (Mckee, 2007), and overall improved quality of life (Hald & Malamuth, 2008).Given the existence of both positive and negative correlates of pornography usage in the extant literature, understanding what variables lead to problematic pornography viewing (PPV) may be especially useful for research and intervention. ...
identified religiosity and experiential avoidance as correlates.
Scrupulosity has been theorized as a factor within religiosity
that may be associated with PPV. The present study tested a
moderated-mediation model using structural equation modeling
in a sample (n=727) of pornography viewers. Experiential
avoidance and scrupulosity were found to be positive correlates
of PPV. Indirect effects suggested experiential avoidance
was a positive mediator between scrupulosity and PPV.
Moderation analyses indicated these relationships only held
for men. The present findings support the use of acceptancebased
interventions for individuals struggling with PPV.
... In addition to these studies focused on the individual level, research on the effect of pornography on relational health on the couple level has likewise suggested that perceptions and attitudes may be important. Mirroring results at the individual level, several scholars have noted that religious couples and individuals who have negative views of pornography may have elevated negative relational outcomes when one or both partners utilizes pornography (Doran & Price, 2014;Perry, 2016). Perry and Whitehead (2018) recently found that religiosity moderated the association between pornography use and sexual satisfaction among those in relationships. ...
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 outcomes associated with such consumption. Using a sample of 1639 individuals sampled online from the MTurk website, we explored how definitions of sexual material as pornographic are related to actual use and how differences between the perceptions of sexual material as pornography and use of such material were associated with depressive symptoms. Results suggested that the perception of sexual material as pornographic was significantly related to usage patterns and that this pattern varied based on how explicit the material was. Results also suggested that individual differences between perception and use were significantly related to depression. Specifically, viewing sexual material one does not deem as pornographic was related to higher levels of depressive symptoms. However, global acceptance of pornography and the general perception of sexual content as pornographic or not did not moderate associations between pornography use and depressive symptoms. Implications for future research and for the further understanding of the effects of pornography use are discussed.
... Berkaitan dengan kualitas perkawinan, hasil-hasil penelitian menunjukkan secara umum religiusitas berpengaruh terhadap kualitas perkawinan (Aman et al., 2019;Fard et al., 2013;Perry, 2015Perry, , 2016aPerry, , 2016bPerry, , 2016cSchramm et al., 2012). Mahoney et al. (2003) berpendapat bahwa upaya untuk memajukan kerangka teoritis untuk menjelaskan hubungan yang sering ditemukan antara religiusitas dan fungsi keluarga, termasuk kualitas perkawinan, harus melampaui aspek-aspek agama yang sangat perifer seperti kehadiran di gereja. ...
Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengadaptasi Sanctification of Marriage Questionnaire untuk muslim di Indonesia. Adaptasi dilakukan melalui tahap: penerjemahan, memberikan bukti validitas konstruk, dan reliabilitas. Bukti validitas konstruk dilakukan dengan analisis faktor eksploratori yang dilanjutkan dengan analisis faktor konfirmatori MGCFA (Multi-Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis). Dalam penelitian ini, peneliti menggunakan koefisien reliabilitas komposit. Subjek untuk mengungkap struktur faktor pensakralan perkawinan merupakan 160 individu yang menikah, sedangkan subjek untuk menguji stabilitas struktur faktor pensakralan perkawinan terdiri dari 102 suami dan 111 istri. Hasil analisis faktor eksploratori menunjukkan konstruk pensakralan perkawinan memiliki tiga faktor/dimensi yaitu: keyakinan, pengalaman kualitas kesakralan dan manifestasi Allah. Stabilitas struktur faktor pensakralan perkawinan kemudian diuji secara empiris dengan MGCFA. Hasil MGCFA menunjukkan ketiga faktor/dimensi pensakralan perkawinan terbukti stabil. Koefisien reliabilitas komposit dari Sanctification of Marriage Questionnaire berada dalam kategori baik. Penelitian selanjutnya dapat dilakukan untuk memberikan bukti validitas konstruk dengan validitas prediktif dan validitas konkuren dari Sanctification of Marriage Questionnaire. Keterbatasan dalam penelitian ini didiskusikan lebih lanjut.
Kata Kunci: adaptasi skala, analisis faktor eksploratori, analisis faktor konfirmatori multi kelompok, muslim, pensakralan perkawinan
Adaptasi Sanctification of Marriage Questionnaire: Versi Indonesia untuk Masyarakat Muslim
Abstract
This study aims to adapt the Sanctification of Marriage Questionnaire for Muslims inIndonesia. Adaptation of the Sanctification of Marriage Questionnaire is carried out throughthe stages: translation, providing evidence of construct validity and reliability. Evidence of construct validity was carried out by exploratory factor analysis followed by MGCFA (Multi-Group Confirmatory factor Analysis). In this study, we used a composite reliability. Subjects to reveal the factor structure of sanctification of marriage were 160 married individuals, while the subjects to test the stability of factor structure consisted of 102 husbands and 111 wives. The result of exploratory factor analysis shows that the construct of sanctification of marriage has three factors / dimensions, namely: belief, perceived sacred qualities and manifestation of God. The structure stability of sanctification of marriage was then empirically tested by MGCFA. The results of MGCFA showed that the three factors / dimensions of sanctification of marriage proved stable. The composite reliability coefficient of the Sanctification of Marriage Questionnaire was in a good category. Further research can be carried out to provide evidence of construct validity with predictive validity and concurrent validity of the Sanctification of Marriage Questionnaire. Limitations in this study are discussed further.Keywords: exploratory factor analysis, multi-group confirmatory factor analysis, muslim,sanctification of marriage, scale adaptation
Keywords: exploratory factor analysis, multi-group confirmatory factor analysis, muslim, sanctification of marriage, scale adaptation
... More simply, men who used pornography while disapproving of it morally (i.e., moral incongruence) were more likely to experience increases in depression over a sixyear period than other users of pornography who did not experience such incongruence. Such findings are consistent with the greater body of research demonstrating that religious individuals who use pornography (implying moral incongruence) often experience greater levels of distress such as lower levels of subjective happiness (Patterson & Price, 2012), diminished quality or well-being in family relationships (Doran & Price, 2014;Perry, 2016;Perry & Snawder, 2017;Thomas, Alper, & Gleason, 2017), and lower levels of sexual satisfaction . Collectively, such findings suggest that moral incongruence may represent a threat to well-being, beyond the effects that PPMI themselves may have (Grubbs & Perry, 2018). ...
The notion of problematic pornography use remains contentious in both academic and popular literature. Although the mental health community at large is divided as to the addictive versus non-addictive nature of Internet pornography, substantial numbers of individuals report "feeling" as if their use of Internet pornography is problematic. The present work seeks to construct a model related to problematic pornography use that is clearly derived from empirical literature and that provides directions to be tested in future research. The focus of the present work is on those perceptions as they relate to the overarching experience of moral incongruence in pornography use, which is generally thought of as the experience of having one's behaviors be inconsistent with one's beliefs. To this end, we put forth a model of pornography problems due to moral incongruence. Within this model, we describe how pornography-related problems-particularly feelings of addiction to pornography-may be, in many cases, better construed as functions of discrepancies-moral incongruence-between pornography-related beliefs and pornography-related behaviors. A systematic review of literature and meta-analysis is conducted in order to evaluate support for this model, and the implications of this model for research and clinical practice are discussed.
... And because Jesus could be interpreted as considering lustful gazes and thoughts as analogous (or even equal to) physical adultery (Matthew 5:28), some conservative Protestants have argued that habitual pornography use is also grounds for divorce (Gilkerson 2015). Consequently, even though married conservative Protestants by and large are statistically less likely than other Americans to commit adultery (Burdette et al. 2007) or view pornography (Perry 2016(Perry , 2017b; but see Perry 2017c), conservative Protestants may be more inclined to emphasize these reasons for divorce since they are the ones that are most legitimate within that religious tradition. ...
How does religion influence the ways divorcées frame their divorce experience? Building on Mills's "vocabularies of motive" concept, I theorize that Americans who are more religious or affiliated with a conservative Protestant tradition will be more likely to emphasize their former spouse's role in the divorce while minimizing their own. Data are taken from a large, representative sample of divorced Americans in the 2014 Relationships in America survey. Analyses affirm that divorced Americans who attend worship services more frequently are more likely to say that their former spouse wanted the divorce more than they did. Looking at 17 specific reasons for divorce, those who feel religion is more important to them are consistently more likely to select reasons that put blame on their former spouse or circumstances, while frequent attendees are less likely to cite their own behaviors or intentions. Though less consistent, notable patterns also emerged for conservative Protestants. Given the stigma against divorce in many religious communities, I argue that divorcées in such communities likely feel internal pressure to account for their divorce in ways that deflect blame.
... The consumption of pornography has been a subject of academic study for over 60 years (Kinsey, Pomeroy, & Martin, 1953), with researchers examining its associations with violence (Allen, D'Alessio, & Brezgel, 1995), rape myths (Allen, Emmers, Gebhardt, & Giery, 1995), and sexual assault (Wright, Tokunaga, & Kraus, 2015), as well as relationship satisfaction and stability (Perry, 2016;Rasmussen, 2016;Szymanski, Feltman, & Dunn, 2015), egalitarian attitudes (Rasmussen & Kohut, in press), and potential consequences for sexual functioning (e.g., high rates of erectile dysfunction among pornography-consuming young men; Park et al., 2016). All of these areas have relied heavily on participants' self-reports of pornography use. ...
In a large online survey of undergraduates, we examined the degree to which social desirability concerns might bias pornography-related self-reports and whether these biases are stronger among highly religious participants than among less-religious ones. Recent state-level analyses have put forward a controversial suggestion that religious individuals tend to search for pornography more than their less-religious peers, despite self-reports to the contrary. Such results could be explained by a social-desirability bias against reporting the consumption of pornography, one that applies specifically to religious individuals. Though our findings are limited to undergraduates in the U.S. Midwest, we found some evidence that the desire to positively self-present (as measured by the Marlowe–Crowne social desirability scale) may bias reports of pornography consumption and perceptions of pornography’s effects (e.g., perceptions of addictiveness). However, contrary to popular sentiment—and our own hypotheses—we found no evidence for and much evidence against the suggestion that religious individuals have a more pronounced social desirability bias against the reporting of pornography consumption than the irreligious. Interaction terms assessing that possibility were either nonsignificant or significant in the reverse direction.
... Researchers and clinicians have been particularly interested in how pornography viewing, and problematic pornography viewing behaviors, are associated with romantic relationship well-being (Borgogna, Lathan, & Mitchell, 2018;Campbell & Kohut, 2017;Kohut, Balzarini, Fisher, & Campbell, 2018;Lambert, Negash, Stillman, Olmstead, & Fincham, 2012;Manning, 2006;Perry, 2016Perry, , 2017Perry & Schleifer, 2018;Veit, Stulhofer, & Hald, 2018;Willoughby, Carroll, Busby, & Brown, 2016). Although investigators have found support for a link between pornography viewing and relationship problems (Manning, 2006;Perry, 2018b;Perry & Schleifer, 2018;Wright, Bridges, Sun, Ezzell, & Johnson, 2018;Wright, Tokunaga, et al., 2017;Zitzman & Butler, 2009), such findings do not preclude the possibility that a third variable might be confounding those associations. ...
Research has indicated that pornography viewing is related to romantic relationship problems. However, the correlations across past studies have been small. We tested a model in which playboy norm conformity (i.e. desires to have frequent sex with multiple partners) functions as a confound between pornography viewing constructs on three romantic relationship wellbeing indicators: Relationship satisfaction, relationship commitment, and infidelity proclivity. Results from men (n = 286) and women (n = 717) indicated that the significant inverse correlations between relationship satisfaction and relationship commitment with pornography viewing constructs becomes non-significant when playboy norm conformity is accounted. Further, the positive relationship between pornography viewing and infidelity proclivity also becomes non-significant in women (no initial connection between pornography viewing and infidelity proclivity was found in men). Though conformity to playboy norms was more strongly related to all romantic relationship wellbeing indicators across genders, pornography viewing frequency was still significantly inversely correlated with relationship satisfaction for women; though the effect size was small. Moderation analyses suggested that pornography viewing frequency was more strongly inversely correlated with relationship satisfaction for women than men. Cumulatively, our results suggest conformity to playboy norms is a significant confounding variable between pornography viewing and romantic relationship wellbeing.
... The reasons and factors involved in viewing pornography are multi-faceted and include wanting to be sexually aroused and/or for masturbatory purposes, for curiosity, for information and educational purposes, for improving mood, and for satisfying sexual fantasies etc. (Boies 2002;Mattebo et al. 2014;Merrick et al. 2013;Paul and Shim 2008). Accessing pornography can also shape attitudes towards it and can affect individuals' daily lives and associated activities (e.g., Patterson and Price 2012;Perry 2015Perry , 2016Perry , 2017. It has also been claimed that pornography can negatively affect community morals (Lo and Wei 2005;Mattebo et al. 2014), cause disruption to individuals' sex lives such as the frequency of sexual activity, inhibition of sexual performance, and relationship breakdown (Flood 2009;Hald and Malamuth 2008;Maddox et al. 2011;Paul and Shim 2008;Poulsen et al. 2013). ...
Pornography is extensively produced, distributed, and used as a medium of entertainment around the world but has been little studied in Bangladesh. The present study examined the attitudes and risk factors of Bangladeshi university students’ pornography consumption. A survey was carried among 313 undergraduate students at Jahangirnagar University (Dhaka, Bangladesh). The study found that 72% of students consumed pornography at least once within their entire life, and approximately half of them were occasional consumers. Approximately two-thirds (67%) encountered pornography during high school, although females typically encountered pornography much later. Logistic regression analysis showed that pornography consumption was predicted by being male, living in a rural area, being in a relationship, engaging in online activities (such as using Facebook), and watching movies. Further research is needed to further determine the behavioral patterns and associated factors that influence pornography consumption among Bangladeshi students.
Keywords: Pornography; Pornography consumption; Pornography attitudes; Student sexual behavior; Bangladeshi sex
... As sexually explicit media or "pornography" has become increasingly accessible throughout developed world (Ogas & Gaddam, 2011), a burgeoning literature has emerged to test and explain what appears to be a persistent (though often relatively weak) connection between pornography consumption and the quality of committed romantic relationships (see reviews and meta-analyses in Manning, 2006;Rasmussen, 2016;Newstrom & Harris, 2016;Wright, Tokunaga, Kraus, & Klann, 2017). Though there are exceptions such as when couples view erotic material together as part of their sexual activity (Kohut, Fisher, & Campbell, 2017), the majority of studies have consistently found that more frequent pornography use tends to be negatively associated with reported relationship satisfaction as well as more specific indicators of relationship quality, especially for men (Carvalheira, Traeen, & Stulhofer, 2015;Daneback, Traeen, & Mansson, 2009;Doran & Price, 2014;Maddox, Rhoades, & Markman, 2011;Minarcik, Wetterneck, & Short, 2016;Morgan, 2011;Perry, 2016;Poulsen, Busby, & Galovan, 2013;Willoughby, Carroll, Busby, & Brown, 2016;Yucel & Gassanov, 2010). And while the majority of studies have been cross-sectional, data from longitudinal and experimental studies suggest that pornography use may indeed have a directional influence on romantic relationship quality (Gwinn, Lambert, Fincham, & Maner, 2013;Kenrick, Gutierres, & Goldberg, 1989;Lambert et al., 2012;Muussess, Kerkhof, & Finkenauer, 2015;Perry, 2017;Perry & Schliefer, 2017;Wright et al., 2017;Zillmann & Bryant, 1988), just as it may also be a consequence of poorer relationship quality (see the bi-directional effect in Muusses et al., 2015). ...
Numerous studies have observed a persistent, and most often negative, association between pornography use and romantic relationship quality. While various theories have been suggested to explain this association, studies have yet to empirically examine whether the observed link between pornography consumption and relationship outcomes has more to do with solo-masturbation than actually watching pornography. The current study draws on two nationally-representative data sets with nearly identical measures to test whether taking masturbation practice into account reduces or nullifies the association between pornography use and relational happiness. Controls are included for sex frequency and satisfaction, depressive symptoms, and other relevant correlates. Results from both the 2012 New Family Structures Study (N=1,977) and 2014 Relationships in America survey (N=10,106) show that masturbation is negatively associated with relational happiness for men and women, while pornography use is either unassociated or becomes unassociated with relational happiness once masturbation is included. Indeed, evidence points to a slight positive association between pornography use and relational happiness once masturbation and gender differences are accounted for. Findings suggest that future studies on this topic should include measures of masturbation practice along with pornography use and that modifications to theories connecting pornography use to relationship outcomes should be considered.
... Such scholarship has also suggested that certain contextual factors are important when considering associations between pornography use and individual outcomes, such as religiosity (Doran & Price, 2014;Patterson & Price, 2012;Perry, 2016;Perry & Whitehead, 2018), acceptance of pornography (Maas, Vasilenko, & Willoughby, 2018), and gender (Carroll et al., 2008;Wright, Tokunaga, Kraus, & Klann, 2017). For example, men are more likely to use and accept pornography, as well as use it alone, whereas women appear more likely to view pornography with a sexual or dating partner (Hald, 2006;Morgan, 2011). ...
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 and partner associations between pornography use, sexual dynamics, and relational well-being. We also explored how couple pornography use and partner knowledge of pornography use were associated with well-being. Results suggested that female pornography use was associated with higher female sexual desire but no other dependent variables. Male pornography use was associated with a wide array of negative well-being indicators, including less male and female relationship satisfaction, lower female sexual desire, and lower male positive communication. Couple pornography use was associated with higher reported sexual satisfaction for both partners but no other well-being indicators. Partner knowledge of use had little direct association with well-being, but some evidence suggested that unknown individual use may be associated with less sexual satisfaction but more relationship satisfaction. Results suggest that different configurations of use among heterosexual couples are associated with varying relational well-being indicators.
... While the vast majority of these studies have been cross-sectional, and thus, there is the distinct possibility that pornography use is the result of lower marital quality, longitudinal studies have also shown that earlier pornography use predicts poorer marital outcomes over time (e.g., Muusses et al. 2015;Perry 2017a, b;Perry and Schleifer 2018). Interpreting these trends, scholars suggest that frequent pornography use, particularly when done in isolation, may shape viewers' expectations about body image or sexual relationships in unrealistic ways, causing viewers to grow dissatisfied with their own sexual relationships, partners, or spouses (see Rasmussen 2016;Perry 2016;Wright et al. 2017). ...
A number of recent studies have examined the connection between pornography use and relationship outcomes for Americans already in marriages. The current study takes this research in a different direction by examining (1) whether pornography use may be associated with entrance into marriage during early adulthood and (2) whether this association is moderated by both gender and religion, two key factors strongly related to both pornography use and earlier marriage. Longitudinal data were taken from waves 1, 3, and 4 of the National Study of Youth and Religion, a nationally-representative panel study of Americans from their teenage years into early adulthood (N = 1,691). It was theorized that frequent pornography use at earlier survey waves may foster more sexually progressive attitudes that may lead to devaluing marriage as an institution, and, for religious men in particular, may disincentivize marriage as a "socially legitimate" means of sexual fulfillment. The association between pornography use and marriage entry was non-linear for men and non-existent among women. Among men, higher frequency pornography viewers were not significantly different from non-viewers in their likelihood of marriage entry. Compared to more moderate levels of pornography use, however, higher levels of pornography use in emerging adulthood were associated with a lower likelihood of marriage by the final survey wave for men. Associations were not moderated by religiosity for either gender. Data limitations and implications for future research are discussed.
... Despite recent feminist analyses of queer and women-oriented pornography that promotes gender diversity and equality, and despite much recent research on pornography that questions the linear cause-effect link to misogynistic and violent attitudes (Loftus 2002;McKee, Albury, and Lumby 2008;Ruddock 2015;Smith, Barker, and Attwood 2015;Weitzer 2011Weitzer , 2015Williams 2004), a small number of social science scholars suggest that exposure to increasingly available digital pornography converts heterosexual male porn consumers into predators who not only lack empathy with female performers but, ultimately, foster callousness toward all women (Dines 2010;Jensen 2007). Porn consumption is also alleged to damage relationships and family life (Manning 2006;Paul 2005;Perry 2016). Most recently, there have been claims that the United States (and elsewhere) are in the grips of a public health crisis due to the (supposed) ill effects of (online) porn consumption and porn addiction (Ley 2018;Webber and Sullivan 2018). ...
Much contemporary debate about pornography centers on its role in portraying and perpetuating gender inequality. This article compares traditional gendered attitudes between cisgender men attending the Adult Entertainment Expo (n = 294) and a random sample of male respondents from the 2016 General Social Survey (GSS), a U.S. representative survey of general attitudes and beliefs collected every two years (n = 863). Our survey borrowed questions from the GSS to measure attitudes about gender equality across four dimensions: (1) working mothers, (2) women in politics, (3) traditional gender roles in the family, and (4) affirmative action for women in the workplace. Through bivariate analyses, we found that “porn superfans” are no more sexist or misogynistic than the general U.S. public on two of the four measures (women in politics and women in the general workplace) and held more progressive gender‐role attitudes than the general public on the other two measures. We conducted binary logistic regressions for those two measures to determine if the relationship remained significant when controlling for other factors. For one dimension, working mothers, it did (p < .001). Our results call into question some of the claims that porn consumption fosters de facto negative and hostile attitudes toward women.
... According to the findings of this study, there was a statistically significant difference in the mean score of religiosity between the two groups, and men who had more religiosity reported less history of using pornography. The results of other studies have also indicated a negative and significant relationship between religiosity and use of pornography (Bridges & Morokoff, 2011;Hardy et al., 2013;Maas et al., 2018;Maddox et al., 2011;Patterson & Price, 2012;Perry, 2015Perry, , 2016Poulsen et al., 2013;Sun et al., 2016;Wright, 2013). In fact, sexual limitations imposed by religions have led religious people to have more negative attitudes toward pornography and reduced its use (Khaleghian et al., 2020). ...
In married men, the use of pornography is a concern associated with harms to marital life. Little is known regarding effect of pornography use on sexual satisfaction and marital intimacy. This study compared sexual satisfaction and marital intimacy between two groups of married men with and without a history of using pornography in Rafsanjan City (Kerman Province, Iran). This retrospective cohort study was performed on 267 married men in Rafsanjan City and selected by convenience sampling method in 2020. Data collection tools included demographic characteristics form, unidimensional relationship closeness scale (URCS), Hudson sexual satisfaction questionnaire, and sexual pornography questionnaire. Data were analyzed by Chi-Square, Two-Sample Independent t-test, and multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) using SPSS software version 21. The mean age of participants was 35.97 and 63.3% had college education. Results showed that sexual satisfaction and marital intimacy were lower in male pornography users than non-users, but this difference was not statistically significant after removing the effect of demographic variables. Our findings revealed that in men, the use of pornography does not seem to reduce sexual satisfaction and marital intimacy.
... A recent meta-analysis has shown that, across studies, there is a robust association between moral incongruence regarding pornography use, defined as the experience or belief that one's pornography use is inconsistent with one's moral beliefs, and self-perceived problems associated with pornography use (Grubbs et al., 2019). Studies have also suggested that a spouse's religious beliefs intensify the negative effects of pornography use on marital quality (Perry, 2016). Another limitation of the current study is that we assessed women's perceptions of pornography use and did not gather data from male partners about their use. ...
We used a mixed-method design to examine the attributions women in mixed-gender/sex relationships make for their partner’s perceived pornography use and whether such attributions covary with women’s relationship and sexual satisfaction. A final sample of 199 women completed measures of relationship satisfaction, sexual satisfaction, and their perceptions of partner’s pornography use. Participants also completed three open-ended questions assessing their attributions of their partner’s perceived pornography use. Qualitative analyses revealed 11 themes in women’s attributions of their partner’s perceived pornography use; some of the themes reflected on women themselves (e.g., being open-minded and accepting), whereas other themes reflected on the partner (e.g., partner is sexually bored) or the relationship (e.g., strong and trusting relationship). Furthermore, the women made positive, negative, and neutral attributions. Quantitative analyses showed that positive attributions were significantly more frequent than neutral or negative attributions and the latter two categories did not differ significantly from each other. Also, greater frequency of positive and neutral attributions and lower frequency of negative attributions were associated with higher relationship satisfaction and sexual satisfaction. Our results suggest that women make a range of attributions about their partner’s pornography use and that this variation relates meaningfully to indices of relationship functioning.
... Also, sexual orientation, whether the participant has a child, and education were used because each variable has been shown to be associated with sexual satisfaction (e.g., Gil, 2007;Henderson, Lehavot, & Simoni, 2009;Yoo, Bartle-Haring, Day, Gangamma, 2014). Impulsivity (Wetterneck, Burgess, Short, Smith, & Cervantes, 2012), body image (Sanchez & Kiefer, 2007), and religiosity (Perry, 2016) were all controlled for because they are potential confounds for the associations between viewing sexual content and sexual satisfaction. Participants were coded as White (0) or non-White (1), heterosexual (0) or nonheterosexual (1), had no children (0), had at least one child (1), and resident of the U.S. (0) or nonresident (1). ...
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 two components of sexual content (pornography use and provocative sexual media use) were associated with several components of sexual satisfaction (time spent on foreplay, variety, overall satisfaction, frequency, love and affection, and time spent on intercourse) for both men and women. The specific path coefficients of the models revealed that higher pornography use was significantly associated with lower satisfaction with sexual variety and time spent on intercourse for men, yet not associated with any sexual satisfaction outcomes for women. However, greater use of provocative sexual media for men and women was significantly associated with lower satisfaction with the love and affection in the sexual relationship. Provocative sexual media use for women was also associated with lower satisfaction with sexual variety, overall sexual satisfaction, and time spent on intercourse. Our results supported the differentiation of different components of sexual content viewed and sexual satisfaction in gaining a more comprehensive understanding of the intricacies of both constructs.
... There are likely many factors that contribute to differences in estimates of pornography use across samples. Chief among these explanations may be differences in sample composition, as factors such as culture (Velezmoro, Negy, & Livia, 2012), age (Wright, 2013;Wright, Bae, & Funk, 2013), gender (Petersen & Hyde, 2010), sexual orientation (Traeen, Nilson, & Stigum, 2006), religiosity (Perry, 2016(Perry, , 2018Rasmussen & Bierman, 2016, 2017, and social desirability (Rasmussen, Grubbs, Pargament, & Exline, 2018) can inhibit or facilitate the desire to seek out and use pornography or to report such use. Indeed, in the example outlined above, the difference in the estimates provided by Hong et al. (2007) and O'Reilly et al. (2007) may partially reflect differences between Chinese and American students. ...
A great deal of pornography research is founded on dubious measurement practices. Measurement of pornography use has been highly variable across studies and existing measurement approaches have not been developed using standard measurement practices nor have they addressed construct validation or reliability. This state of affairs is problematic for the accumulation of knowledge about the nature of pornography use, its antecedents, correlates, and consequences, as it can contribute to inconsistent results across studies and undermine the generalizability of research findings. This article provides a summary of contemporary measurement practices in pornography research accompanied by an explication of the problems therein. It also offers suggestions on how best to move forward by adopting a more limited set of standardized and validated instruments. We recommend that the creation of such instruments be guided by the careful and thorough conceptualization of pornography use and systematic adherence to measurement development principles.
... As noted by scholars, personal definitions of what is pornography differ significantly and such definitions (and their differences between romantic partners) likely create differing relational environments within which pornography is used. Secondly, personal views and attitudes may moderate the relational effects of pornography by shifting individual reactions to partner use and internal consequences of individual use (Grubbs, Exline, Pargament, Hook, & Carlisle, 2015;Perry, 2016). ...
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. However, this narrow scholarly focus and the continued methodological limitations of research in this area have made synthesizing or drawing broad conclusions about pornography use from this scholarship difficult. One specific limitation of this area is the lack of any broad organizational framework that could help scholars categorize existing research while also laying the groundwork for future scholarship. In this paper, we argue for such a framework and suggest that relational pornography scholarship could be organized across five broad dimensions: the nuances of the content viewed, individual background factors, personal views and attitudes, a couple's relational context, and couple processes. We provide a justification for these five areas and then discuss how this framework could help organize and structure the research in this area moving forward.
... A pesar de encontrar en este trabajo una menor participación en sexteo en el grupo que convivía con su pareja durante el confinamiento, se observó baja frecuencia de esta actividad sexual en términos generales. Los resultados de este estudio coinciden con las evidencias encontradas en anteriores trabajos sobre un uso más frecuente de la pornografía por parte de los hombres (Carroll et al., 2008;French y Hamilton, 2018;Hald, 2006;Hald et al., 2013;Morgan, 2011;Perry, 2016), siendo más empleada esta conducta sexual durante el confinamiento que el intercambio de textos e imágenes sexuales con otra persona. Además, como ponen de manifiesto los datos encontrados en este primer estudio, los participantes más jóvenes de la muestra presentaron mayor grado de satisfacción sexual en el confinamiento y también los que tienen más edad, pero bajo consumo de pornografía. ...
This research, which consists of two studies, has the general objective of analyzing the impact of COVID-19 on the sexual health of 347 adults living in Spain. Study 1, focused on non-face-to-face sexual practices (sexting and pornography), revealed similar levels of sexual satisfaction in men and women, but with differences in age regarding interaction with the consumption of pornography and marital status. Study 2 focused on the changes produced with respect to the previous six months, indicating that the maintenance of sexual satisfaction does not depend on gender, but it does depend on age in interaction with face-to-face sex, marital status, and individual sex, in interaction with an adequate functioning of sexual interest. Given the challenge that this pandemic is posing, these results are useful for the mental and sexual health interventions that are currently being developed because of COVID-19.
... As applied to sexual relationships, research has found that individuals' assumptions about the future of their relationships are likely to affect their relationships directly according to those assumptions (Caughlin et al. 2000;Downey et al. 1998;Murray et al. 2003;Murray et al. 1996). Consistent, then, with both of these sets of literature as well as with the literature that Thomas (2013) summarized in his description of the narrative of personal-viewer harm (e.g., Bergner and Bridges 2002;Hertlein 2006;Manning 2006), and consistent also with other recent research (Perry 2016b;Perry and Snawder 2017), we argue that if husbands think that their pornography viewing is going to harm their marriages, such viewing likely will. ...
Using a mixed methods design that compares quantitative content analysis of popular religious magazines with statistical analysis of national survey data, we show how the anti-pornography narratives that are predominant within different religious traditions can influence the effect that pornography viewing has on the marital happiness of husbands within those traditions. More specifically, we propose a causal chain that explains how meso-level anti-pornography narratives can influence micro-level pornography-effect scripts and, in turn, influence the effect that pornography viewing has on the marital happiness of husbands. We suggest, then, that this kind of causal chain can be thought of as a type of self-fulfilling prophecy. However, instead of operating exclusively at the micro-level as self-fulfilling prophecies have typically been theorized as doing, we apply the notion of the self-fulfilling prophecy to the meso-level, so that rather than just considering how individual thinking can lead to individual outcomes, we also consider how collective thinking can lead to collective outcomes.
... Twitter currently provides account users with the opportunity to share explicit content. Internet content filters are not as effective as blocking harmful material as advertised [8] The progression of viewer consumption has encouraged pornography to become a culture norm in today's society [9]. Whereas, it has been found sourcing pornography teaches individual's sex is a commodity to be bought and individuals should be available through the hyper-sexualizing of culture into mainstream society [10,11]. ...
Clients are increasingly seeking professional help related to pornography viewing in the digital age. Given distress is a key reason clients seek help, the purpose of this study was to identify variables associated with it. Drawing from recent literature, we examined the roles of solitary sexual desire, moral incongruence, feelings of dysregulation, and shame-proneness in predicting subjective distress among consumers. Surveys were administered through Amazon Mechanical Turk to US adults (n = 559). Structural equation models supported moderated mediation, where the positive relationship between sexual desire and subjective distress was fully mediated by feelings of dysregulation, and the relationship between sexual desire and feelings of dysregulation was moderated by moral incongruence. Moral incongruence was the largest direct predictor of subjective distress, while shame-proneness was not significantly associated with it. This study points to targets for intervention research, reinforces findings that values play an integral role in how individuals interpret their viewing and whether they feel distressed, and suggests that values may impact how individuals interpret their sexual desire. Implications for practitioners are discussed, including the need for person-in-environment assessment and more holistic care than has traditionally been proposed in the sex addiction field.
A central question in the study of pornography consumption is whether consumption influences risky sexual behavior. In this research, we focus on one key aspect of risky sexual behavior, the accumulation of sexual partners. Using longitudinal latent class analysis of a nationally representative sample, we determine distinct trajectories of pornography consumption. We then use hurdle models to relate membership in these trajectories to the initiation of sexual activity and accumulation of sexual partners. Even with controls for likely confounds (such as risk-taking propensity and relationship formation), we find that adolescents with a trajectory of early and regular pornography use are more likely to report the initiation of sexual activity and nearly double the number of sexual partners as those with a low-use trajectory. This research is of sociological interest because pornography consumption is becoming increasingly common well before adulthood, suggesting that recent cohorts of emerging adults may be more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior through the accumulation of multiple sexual partners.
Research suggests that pornography has the potential to inform sexual and romantic scripts, but no studies have examined the relational content within modern mainstream pornography. In this article, we present a content analysis of 190 sexually explicit online video clips from mainstream pornography streaming websites, coding for the relationship between participants (if any) and whether the video portrayed acts of infidelity. We also contrasted those clips with a comparison sample of 77 YouTube videos. We found that depictions of on-screen committed relationships were relatively rare in pornography (7.9% of videos) compared to YouTube (18.2%), but that infidelity was relatively common (25.3% vs. 2.6%), with pornography more likely to depict women as engaging in infidelity than men. Relational content was more likely to be included in a pornographic clip when the video portrayed a fictional narrative. These findings are consistent with past research connecting pornography consumption with open and liberal sexuality.
Religion, Spirituality, and Masculinity provides concrete, practical suggestions for mental health professionals. Drawing from decades of clinical experience working with men and interdisciplinary insights from psychology, sociology, religion, and more, the authors explore some of the most salient aspects of men’s mental and spiritual health.
Chapters focus on topics such as men’s relationships to religion and to masculinity, shame, and forgiveness, and concerns such as pornography use and drifting between religious affiliations. In addition to relevant theory and research, each chapter includes a case study and clear, science-informed strategies that can be incorporated into everyday practice in ways that improve men’s health and wellbeing.
In an extension of previous research on pornography users and their disapproval of their own use, support was found for a moderated mediation model in which the relationship between moral disapproval of pornography and depression was mediated by perceived addiction and sexual shame. This indirect effect was moderated by the tendency to blame others. Results demonstrate a possible sequence in which those who morally disapprove of pornography are more likely to perceive themselves as addicted, which is associated with an increase in sexual shame and is ultimately associated with higher levels of depression. Further, findings suggest that a tendency to externalize one’s transgressions onto others simultaneously exacerbates and attenuates the negative associations in these relationships.
Pornography is widely used, distributed, and researched. Nevertheless, few psychometric scales have yet to be developed that assesses this complex construct without pathologizing the behavior or labeling the behavior as problematic. The current study sought to develop a 34-item, purely behavioral and topographic measure of pornography consumption without assigning value to the behavior. In the current study (N = 317), we examine the overarching factor structure and provide initial evidence for the scale’s psychometric characteristics. In line with our hypotheses, we found a bifactor model with one general factor and four subfactors fit the data best; the scale was reliable, and scores were stable over time. Further, the current study provides initial evidence for the scale’s convergent validity in its relation to sexual sensation seeking, excessive pornography use, and gender as well as evidence for divergent validity by possessing small correlations with depressive symptoms and sexual satisfaction. Finally, the current study also provides initial evidence for the scale’s incremental validity and discusses limitations and ideas for future research.
Prior literature has generally found either a null or positive association between sex life satisfaction and religiosity. However, different studies have used various measures of religiosity and have focused on different demographics along the dimensions of age, marital status, and gender, limiting what can be determined in terms of moderating and cross-demographic effects. This shortcoming is germane because it may explain the differing findings in the literature. This study drew on the nationally representative 2017 Baylor Religion Survey (N = 1501) to test relationships among sex life satisfaction, sexual frequency, and a variety of different religious measures while testing for demographic moderators. Results suggest that religion and spirituality have a strong and significant association with sex life satisfaction while controlling for basic sociodemographic variables, and that this relationship is consistent across marital status, age, and gender. The positive association between religion and sexual frequency appeared to be limited to more intrinsic, personal forms such as self-rated spirituality and frequency of prayer. This association did not exist for non-married individuals, however, and among non-marrieds those who attend religious services more reported lower sexual frequency. Possible explanations for these results are discussed.
Problematic pornography viewing is a considerable issue for religious men. We tested a conceptual model positing scrupulosity and self-compassion as simultaneous mediators of the relationship between religiosity and problematic pornography viewing. We additionally examined the combined contributions of traditional masculinity ideology, pornography viewing frequency, spiritualty, and religious behaviors within the model. Results from 244 heterosexual men indicated scrupulosity as the only significant predictor and mediator of problematic pornography in the full model. Further, pornography viewing frequency was inversely related to scrupulosity. Our results compliment recent findings highlighting the importance of addressing religious scrupulosity in the treatment of problematic pornography viewing.
‘Pornography’ is a protean term, rendered more complex by the digital age. Social science researchers need not only a useful definition but also awareness of how the term is applied (by researchers and research participants) and clarity about the scope of material to be included. As part of our attempts to understand the meaning of ‘pornography’, we thematically analyzed definitions presented in recent and prominent pornography research publications and scholarly articles dedicated to defining pornography. We concluded that a useful definition has three components: content, the intention of the producer, and contextual judgement. We then identified implications for pornography of new technology: expanded opportunities for access and content, the interaction and immersion enabled by virtual reality, ‘pornification’ of culture, and challenges to the meaning of consent presented by self-produced content. We argue that pornography should be distinguished from material produced and distributed without participants’ consent. We propose that researchers incorporate new technologies into measurement tools and suggest that they acknowledge context and practise reflexivity. We present as a working definition of ‘pornography’: ‘Material deemed sexual, given the context, that has the primary intention of sexually arousing the consumer and is produced and distributed with the consent of all persons involved’.
Numerous studies have examined the connection between pornography viewing and marital quality, with findings most often revealing a negative association. Data limitations, however, have precluded establishing directionality with a representative sample. This study is the first to draw on nationally representative, longitudinal data (2006–2012 Portraits of American Life Study) to test whether more frequent pornography use influences marital quality later on and whether this effect is moderated by gender. In general, married persons who more frequently viewed pornography in 2006 reported significantly lower levels of marital quality in 2012, net of controls for earlier marital quality and relevant correlates. Pornography’s effect was not simply a proxy for dissatisfaction with sex life or marital decision-making in 2006. In terms of substantive influence, frequency of pornography use in 2006 was the second strongest predictor of marital quality in 2012. Interaction effects revealed, however, that the negative effect of porn use on marital quality applied to husbands, but not wives. In fact, post-estimation predicted values indicated that wives who viewed pornography more frequently reported higher marital quality than those who viewed it less frequently or not at all. The implications and limitations of this study are discussed.
Studies examining the persistent link between religion and martial quality have focused exclusively on religion's within-marriage influence on spousal attitudes and behaviors. The current study shifts the focus to examine how religion's influence on premarital choices holds potential returns to marital quality, and under what conditions of spousal religiosity. Utilizing data from the 2006 Portraits of American Life Study, I examine how several key measures of marriage quality are affected by religious influences on the marriage decision; the religious commitment of one's spouse; and interactions between these two factors. Multivariate analyses reveal that religion's influence on the marriage decision does not directly predict respondents' relationship-satisfaction or their spouse's loving or hurtful behaviors, while the importance of religion to one's spouse is strongly associated with all these marital outcomes. Interaction effects reveal that spouse's religiosity does not greatly influence marital quality among persons whose marriage decision was uninfluenced by religion. However, among persons for whom religion figured prominently in their marriage decision, those with less-religious spouses experienced negative marital outcomes, while those with more-religious spouses reported positive marital outcomes. Pre-marriage religious influences thus predict higher marital quality under the conditions that persons for whom religion greatly influenced their marriage-decision are able to marry religiously-committed spouses.
Although pornography consumption has become increasingly pervasive in the USA, few studies have considered the impact that
more frequent pornography use may have on the health and character of American religion. This article examines how more frequent
consumption of pornography among parents might influence their religious socialization of their children and how this effect
might vary across mothers and fathers. Analyses of 2006 Portraits of American Life Study data reveal that pornography consumption
is negatively associated with the time parents spend talking or reading about religion with their children, net of relevant
religious and sociodemographic characteristics. Moreover, interactions demonstrate that pornography consumption diminishes
the positive effects of other religious factors on time spent religiously socializing one's children. Splitting the sample
by gender reveals that these effects apply primarily to fathers. Findings suggest that increased pornography consumption itself
might threaten the transmission of religious heritage from parents (and particularly fathers) to children.
Mahoney and colleagues' theorizing about the potential role of sanctity as a central feature of religion/spirituality is invoked to examine the relationships among sanctity of marriage, (un)forgiveness, sacrifice, and both positive and negative marital satisfaction. The study examined the perspectives of both members of 342 marital dyads using an Actor-Partner Interdependence Model and a multilevel path modeling. The results indicate that sanctity is related positively to marital satisfaction and negatively to martial dissatisfaction. Sanctity emerged as a strong predictor of marital quality even after accounting for forgiveness, unforgiveness, and sacrifice. Though sanctity is directly linked to positive marital satisfaction, the mediation effects via (un)forgiveness were not significant; however, a mediation effect via sacrifice was significant, which was related to negative marital quality.
Seventy-six highly religious Christian, Jewish, Mormon, and Muslim married mothers and fathers were interviewed regarding how and why three dimensions of religion (i.e., faith community, religious practices, and spiritual beliefs) influence marriage in both beneficial and challenging ways. Through qualitative data analysis the author identified eight emergent themes that link religion and marriage: (1) the influence of clergy, (2) the mixed blessing of faith community service and involvement, (3) the importance of prayer, (4) the connecting influence of family ritual, (5) practicing marital fidelity, (6) pro-marriage/anti-divorce beliefs, (7) homogamy of religious beliefs, and (8) faith in God as a marital support. Qualitative data are presented in connection with each theme, and clinical implications are offered.
This study examined correlates of pornography acceptance and use within a normative (nonclinical) population of emerging adults (individuals aged 18—26). Participants included 813 university students (500 women; M age = 20 years) recruited from six college sites across the United States. Participants completed online questionnaires regarding their acceptance and use of pornography, as well as their sexual values and activity, substance use, and family formation values. Results revealed that roughly two thirds (67% ) of young men and one half (49%) of young women agree that viewing pornography is acceptable, whereas nearly 9 out of 10 (87%) young men and nearly one third (31%) of young women reported using pornography. Results also revealed associations between pornography acceptance and use and emerging adults' risky sexual attitudes and behaviors, substance use patterns, and nonmarital cohabitation values. The discussion considers the implications of pornography use during the transition to adulthood.
Although previous scholarship has examined the relationship between religious involvement and a wide range of family outcomes, the relationship between religion and extramarital sexual behavior remains understudied. The authors investigate how religious affiliation, participation, and biblical beliefs explain differences in self-reported marital infidelity. This study examines data from the 1991-2004 General Social Surveys and finds that religious factors are associated with the likelihood of marital infidelity. Both church attendance and biblical beliefs are associated with lower odds of self-reported infidelity. Additionally, the authors find substantial denominational variations in the odds of marital infidelity, particularly among those who strongly affiliate with their religious group.
Recently, scholars have devoted renewed attention to the role of religion in American life. Thus, it is important that they use the most effective means available to categorize and study religious groups. However, the most widely used classification scheme in survey research (T.W. Smith 1990) does not capture essential differences between American religious traditions and overlooks significant new trends in religious affiliation. We critique this scheme based on its historical, terminological, and taxonomical inaccuracy and offer a new approach that addresses its shortcomings by using denominational affiliation to place respondents into seven categories grounded in the historical development of American religious traditions. Most important, this new scheme yields more meaningful interpretations because the categories refer to concrete religious traditions. Because of increased accuracy in classification, it also improves model fit and reduces measurement error.
Very little is known about how pornography use is related to the quality of committed relationships. This study examined associations among pornography use, the meaning people attach to its use, sexual quality, and relationship satisfaction. It also looked at factors that discriminate between those who use pornography and those who do not. Participants were couples (N = 617 couples) who were either married or cohabiting at the time the data were gathered. Overall results from this study indicated substantial gender differences in terms of use profiles, as well as pornography's association with relationship factors. Specifically, male pornography use was negatively associated with both male and female sexual quality, whereas female pornography use was positively associated with female sexual quality. The study also found that meaning explained a relatively small part of the relationship between pornography use and sexual quality.
The body of empirical research on Internet sexuality has grown steadily since 1993. The following paper provides an overview of the current state of research in this field in its full thematic breadth, addressing six areas of online sexuality: Pornography, sex shops, sex work, sex education, sex contacts, and sexual subcultures. Key research results are presented concerning Internet sexuality’s forms of manifestation, participant groups, opportunities, and risks. This paper shows that sexually related online activities have become routine in recent years for large segments of the population in the Western world. Internet sexuality also takes somewhat different forms based on the age, gender, and sexual orientation of the individual. Academic studies to date have focused overwhelmingly on the possible negative effects of Internet sexuality. By contrast, little research has been conducted on potential benefits. Consequently, a surprising number of gaps are evident in the scholarship on Internet sexuality.
This review examines the role of religion, for better and worse, in marital and parent-child relationships according to peer reviewed studies from 1999-2009. A conceptual framework labeled "relational spirituality" is used to: (a) organize the breadth of findings into the three stages of the formation, maintenance, and transformation of family relationships, and (b) illustrate three in-depth sets of mechanisms to delve into unique ways religion may shape family bonds. Topics include union formation, fertility, spousal roles, marital satisfaction and conflict, divorce, domestic violence, infidelity, pregnancy, parenting children, parenting adolescents, and coping with family distress. Conclusions emphasize moving beyond markers of general religiousness and identifying specific spiritual beliefs and practices that could prevent or intensify problems in traditional and nontraditional families.
Internet pornography (IP) use has increased over the past 10 years. The effects of IP use are widespread and are both negative (e.g., relationship and interpersonal distress) and positive (e.g., increases in sexual knowledge and attitudes toward sex). Given the possible negative effects of IP use, understanding the definition of IP, the types of IP used, and reasons for IP use is important. The present study reviews the methodology and content of available literature regarding IP use in nondeviant adult populations. The study seeks to determine how the studies defined IP, utilized validated measures of pornography use, examined variables related to IP, and addressed form and function of IP use. Overall, studies were inconsistent in their definitions of IP, measurement, and their assessment of the form and function of IP use. Discussion regarding how methodological differences between studies may impact the results and the ability to generalize findings is provided, and suggestions for future studies are offered.
The relationship between the perceived religiosity of one's spouse and marital quality varies across racial and ethnic groups (i.e., Asians, Blacks, Hispanics, and non-Hispanic Whites) in the United States. In this study, data were drawn from a nationally representative sample of married Americans (N=1,162). Although perceived spousal religiosity predicted higher marital quality across all racial and ethnic groups, this effect was stronger for Asians, Blacks, and Hispanics than for Whites. Compared to Whites, the 3 racial and ethnic minority groups experienced a larger boost in frequency of expressive forms of love as perceived spousal religiosity increased. This effect was also found regarding marital satisfaction for Asians and Blacks relative to Whites, but not for Hispanics. Moreover, although racial and ethnic minorities tended to report lower marital quality than Whites at low levels of perceived spousal religiosity, their marital quality tended to be higher than Whites at high levels of perceived spousal religiosity. Three-way interactions indicated that these trends hold regardless of gender.
Research consistently shows a negative association between religiosity and viewing pornography. While scholars typically assume that greater religiosity leads to less frequent pornography use, none have empirically examined whether the reverse could be true: that greater pornography use may lead to lower levels of religiosity over time. I tested for this possibility using two waves of the nationally representative Portraits of American Life Study (PALS). Persons who viewed pornography at all at Wave 1 reported more religious doubt, lower religious salience, and lower prayer frequency at Wave 2 compared to those who never viewed porn. Considering the effect of porn-viewing frequency, viewing porn more often at Wave 1 corresponded to increases in religious doubt and declining religious salience at Wave 2. However, the effect of earlier pornography use on later religious service attendance and prayer was curvilinear: Religious service attendance and prayer decline to a point and then increase at higher levels of pornography viewing. Testing for interactions revealed that all effects appear to hold regardless of gender. Findings suggest that viewing pornography may lead to declines in some dimensions of religiosity but at more extreme levels may actually stimulate, or at least be conducive to, greater religiosity along other dimensions.
The association between religiosity and marital outcome has been repeatedly demonstrated, but a complete understanding of this relationship is hindered by limitations of theory and method. The purpose of the current study was to test 3 explanatory models by assessing 2 samples of newlywed couples. Findings indicated that religiosity was associated with attitudes toward divorce, commitment, and help seeking cross-sectionally. Longitudinal effects, however, were most consistent with a moderating model, wherein religiosity had a positive impact on husbands' and wives' marital satisfaction for couples with less neurotic husbands and a negative impact for couples with more neurotic husbands. Overall, the impact of religiosity was weak over the first 4 years of marriage. Theoretical propositions are offered to guide future research in delineating the types of marriages that may be most affected by religiosity.
Objective: Research on religion and marriage consistently finds a positive association between spousal religious commitment and more positive marital outcomes. But findings regarding the moderating influence of gender on this relationship have been mixed. This article clarifies whether returns to marital quality from having a devout spouse are greater for married women or men. Method: Drawing on data from the nationally representative 2006 Portraits of American Life Study, and utilizing 12 different measures of marital quality, I estimate ordinary least squares (OLS) and logistic regression models to test my hypotheses. Results: In analyses of the full sample, spouse's religious commitment generally predicts positive marital outcomes, net of controls for respondents' gender as well as their religious and sociodemographic characteristics. However, when models are estimated for women and men separately, the returns to marital quality from having a religiously committed spouse are much stronger and more consistent for women than for men. Conclusions: Findings suggest that, ceteris paribus, having a spouse who is more religious predicts positive marriage outcomes, but women benefit from having a religiously committed spouse more than men do. Possible explanations are discussed.
We examined whether the consumption of pornography affects romantic relationships, with the expectation that higher levels of pornography consumption would correspond to weakened commitment in young adult romantic relationships. Study 1 (n = 367) found that higher pornography consumption was related to lower commitment, and Study 2 (n = 34) replicated this finding using observational data. Study 3 (n = 20) participants were randomly assigned to either refrain from viewing pornography or to a self-control task. Those who continued using pornography reported lower levels of commitment than control participants. In Study 4 (n = 67), participants consuming higher levels of pornography flirted more with an extradyadic partner during an online chat. Study 5 (n = 240) found that pornography consumption was positively related to infidelity and this association was mediated by commitment. Overall, a consistent pattern of results was found using a variety of approaches including cross-sectional (Study 1), observational (Study 2), experimental (Study 3), and behavioral (Studies 4 and 5) data.
This study focuses on the social and cultural sources of an important dimension of solidarity in contemporary marriages: marital generosity. Marital generosity is defined here as freely giving to one’s spouse by regularly engaging in small acts of service, forgiving one’s spouse, and displaying high levels of affection and respect. Using recent data from a national sample, the Survey of Marital Generosity (N = 1,368 couples), we explored the associations between gender egalitarianism, familism, religiosity, and generous behavior among spouses aged 18 to 45. Our results suggest that domestic gender egalitarianism—where spouses reported sharing housework and child care—is linked to greater reports of marital generosity. Religiosity is also positively associated with marital generosity. Finally, the most potent predictor of generosity in this study is commitment, where spouses are personally dedicated to their partner and to continuing the relationship.
We used data on 20,000 ever-married adults in the General Social Survey to examine the relationship between watching pornographic films and various measures of marital well-being. We found that adults who had watched an X-rated movie in the past year were more likely to be divorced, more likely to have had an extramarital affair, and less likely to report being happy with their marriage or happy overall. We also found that, for men, pornography use reduced the positive relationship between frequency of sex and happiness. Finally, we found that the negative relationship between pornography use and marital well-being has, if anything, grown stronger over time, during a period in which pornography has become both more explicit and more easily available.
There are limited hemodynamic data in women with arousal or orgasmic disorders and even fewer normative control hemodynamic data in women without sexual dysfunction. In addition, there is limited experience with topical vasoactive agents (used to maximize genital smooth muscle relaxation) applied to the external genitalia during hemodynamic evaluations. The aim of this study was to report duplex Doppler ultrasound clitoral cavernosal arterial changes before and after topical PGE-1 (Alprostadil) administration in control women and in patients with arousal and orgasmic sexual disorders. We found that women with sexual arousal and orgasmic disorders had significantly (p
Data from the National Survey of Families and Households are used to determine the impact of religion on marital dependency -- the extent to which either spouse believes his or her life would be worse should the marriage end. Spouses belonging to denominations attaching greater value to marriage and marital stability should report greater dependency, as would those who are more involved in the life of the church and those who are married to a spouse of the same denomination. An index of marital dependency is constructed. Religious affiliation increases the likelihood of marital dependency, as does membership in more conservative Protestant denominations and quasi-ethnic religious groups. Church attendance, self-identification as a Fundamentalist and marital homogamy all increase marital dependence. The effect of marital homogamy is stronger among Fundamentalists, even with controls imposed for secular variables, such as labor-force participation, and when the reciprocal effect of the spouse's attitude toward the marriage is taken into account.
This study assesses the relationship between religious heterogamy and the marital happiness of Catholics, employing data from NORC General Social Surveys. A logistic regression analysis with interaction terms enables us to ascertain (a) whether any observed effect of heterogamy is attributable to correlated differences in religiosity; and (b) whether religiosity and heterogamy interact in affecting marital happiness. The findings show that heterogamy is not related to marital happiness for Catholics, either at the bivariate level or when religiosity and other variables are controlled. Religiosity, however, does have a positive effect on marital happiness, but only among homogamous Catholics.
The relationship between religious homogamy and marital satisfaction is examined utilizing log-linear models. Inclusion of the separate effects of husband's and wife's religion on marital satisfaction allows us to control for the potentially spurious relationship between religious affiliation and marital satisfaction. Results indicate that homogamous marriages are more satisfying. In order to test the hypothesis that dissatisfaction in heterogeneous marriages arises over conflict regarding socialization of children, the presence of children is included. The hypothesis is discounted, since the homogamy effect remains significant. When frequency of religious attendance is included, however, the homogamy effect becomes nonsignificant, suggesting that patterns of religious involvement underlie higher satisfaction within homogamous marriages.
Research on social movements has once again come to focus on the cultural foundations of collective action. However, previous
works have failed to identify the cognitive structures that compose cultural worldviews believed to motivate collective action.
We integrate Snow et al.'s (1986) notions of cognitive frameworks with Sewell's (1992) conception of the duality of structure
to piece together a flexible approach for the identification of cognitive structures. Drawing on information from insider
documents from Conservative Protestant communities, we employ this approach to elaborate the structure of Conservative Protestant
antagonism to pornography. Using data from the 1988 General Social Survey, we demonstrate how Conservative Protestants' distinctive
religious commitments direct their dispositions toward sexually explicit materials. In brief, we show that Conservative Protestant
opposition to pornography is rooted in commitments to Biblical inerrancy and solidified by high rates of religious participation.
Inerrancy serves as a cognitive resource informing two separate paths to pornography opposition: moral absolutism and beliefs
in the threat of social contamination.
Researchers frequently postulate a strong relationship between religiosity and marital stability. We incorporate a multidimensional specification of religiosity into event-history models of the religion-marital stability relationship. Results are based on panel data from the National Survey of Families and Households (N = 4,587 married couples). While no single dimension of religiosity adequately describes the effect of religious experience on marital stability, the frequency of religious attendance has the greatest positive impact on marital stability. When both spouses attend church regularly, the couple has the lowest risk of divorce. Spouse differences in church attendance increase the risk of dissolution. All significant religious affiliation influences disappear once demographic characteristics are controlled. The wife's religious beliefs concerning marital commitment and nonmarital sex are more important to the stability of the marriage than the husband's beliefs.
This article contributes to recent work investigating the role of religious sanctification, that is, the process via which one's spouse or marital relationship is perceived as having divine character or sacred significance. We outline a series of theoretical arguments linking marital sanctification with specific aspects of marital quality. A recent probability sample of Texas adults is used to gauge the links between general religiousness, marital sanctification, and marital quality and functioning. Key findings include the following: (1) General religiousness bears a weak link with marital outcomes; (2) sanctification strongly predicts desirable marital outcomes; and (3) sanctification appears to buffer the deleterious effects of financial and general stress on marital quality. Study limitations and practical implications are discussed, and promising directions for future research are identified.
This study assessed how sexual media use by one or both members of a romantic dyad relates to relationship and sexual satisfaction. A total of 217 heterosexual couples completed an Internet survey that assessed sexual media use, relationship and sexual satisfaction, and demographic variables. Results revealed that a higher frequency of men's sexual media use related to negative satisfaction in men, while a higher frequency of women's sexual media use related to positive satisfaction in male partners. Reasons for sexual media use differed by gender: Men reported primarily using sexual media for masturbation, while women reported primarily using sexual media as part of lovemaking with their partners. Shared sexual media use was associated with higher relational satisfaction compared to solitary sexual media use.
Pornography is both prevalent and normative in many cultures across the world, including United States’ culture; however, little is known about the psychological and relational effects that it can have on young adult women involved in heterosexual romantic relationships in which their male partners view pornography. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between men’s pornography use, both frequency and problematic use, on their heterosexual female partner’s psychological and relational well-being among 308 young adult college women. In addition, psychometric properties for the Perceived Partner’s Pornography Use Scale are provided. Participants were recruited at a large Southern public university in the United States and completed an online survey. Results revealed women’s reports of their male partner’s frequency of pornography use were negatively associated with their relationship quality. More perceptions of problematic use of pornography was negatively correlated with self-esteem, relationship quality, and sexual satisfaction. In addition, self-esteem partially mediated the relationship between perceptions of partner’s problematic pornography use and relationship quality. Finally, results revealed that relationship length moderated the relationship between perceptions of partner’s problematic pornography use and sexual satisfaction, with significant dissatisfaction being associated with longer relationship length.
This study addresses two questions: Do religiously dissimilar couples argue more often than other couples? Are religious differences among partners associated with arguments concerning particular issues? We investigate these issues using data on 2,945 co-residing, first-time married couples from Wave 1 of the National Survey of Families and Households. Denominational homo/heterogamy, measured in several different ways, has little bearing on the frequency or types of marital disagreements. Men's religious attendance is inversely related to the overall frequency of disputes and to disagreements over housework, money, how time is spent, and sex, whereas women's attendance is not. Attendance (dis)similarities among partners are positively associated with the overall frequency of conflicts. Theological disparities between partners are linked with more frequent conflicts overall and also with disagreements over household labor and finances. Several implications and promising directions for future research are discussed.
Results from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth indicate that marriages contracted after 1980 are becoming more stable. This article examines several individual characteristics in search of an explanation for increasing stability. A person-year file is created and logistic regression is used to determine which covariates account for the negative effect of year in a model predicting the likelihood of marital dissolution. Increasing experience of premarital sex, premarital birth, cohabitation, and racial and religious heterogamy are detracting from marital stability. However, rising age at marriage and, to a lesser degree, increased education are associated with increasing marital stability. These latter effects more than counterbalance the factors associated with instability leading to an overall decline in the rate of marital dissolution.
Previous studies have indicated a relationship between religious homogamy and marital satisfaction and stability. However, most have emphasized denominational affiliation only. Using loglinear analysis of national survey data, this study tested the effects of three types of religious homogamy - namely denominational affiliation, church attendance, and belief in the Bible - upon marital satisfaction and stability. Results indicated that denominational affiliation homogamy is the most critical, with church attendance homogamy contributing slightly to marital success. Similar beliefs about the Bible did not have a statistically significant association with either marital satisfaction or marital stability.
In this paper, we examine the question of whether religion—affiliation, beliefs, and practice—provides a source of marital strength and stability in the lives of American couples. Unlike most previous studies, we focus on religion and marital quality among 433 low-income married couples with co-residential minor children, using recently collected survey data on both spouses sampled in the Marital and Relationship Survey (MARS). Our working hypothesis is that religiosity is a positive force for marital quality among low-income couples, and that a practicing faith can buffer the negative effects of economic stress on marital quality. The results indicate that most low-income couples have unexpectedly high scores on the various dimensions of marital quality (e.g., commitment, emotional support, etc.). Religious affiliation and personal religious beliefs are less important for marital quality than if couples share similar beliefs about God’s divine plans for them and their relationship, if they pray together, or if they attend religious services together. On the other hand, the stress-buffering hypothesis received little support in our analysis. At a minimum, the results clearly highlight the potential role of religion in the marital lives of low-income couples. The implication is that faith-based organizations (including churches and synagogues) may have a particularly strong role to play in nurturing the spiritual lives and enhancing the quality of the intimate marital relationships of their flocks.
Since the advent of the Internet, the sex industry has profited from an unprecedented proximity to the home environment. Consequently, couples, families, and individuals of all ages are being impacted by pornography in new ways. Examining the systemic impact of Internet pornography, however, is relatively uncharted territory and the body of systemically-focused research is limited. A review of the research that does exist was undertaken and many negative trends were revealed. While much remains unknown about the impact of Internet pornography on marriages and families, the available data provide an informed starting point for policy makers, educators, clinicians, and researchers.
A substantial body of research has shown that relationship quality tends to be (a) lower among racial and ethnic minorities and (b) higher among more religious persons and among couples in which partners share common religious affiliations, practices, and beliefs. However, few studies have examined the interplay of race or ethnicity and religion in shaping relationship quality. Our study addresses this gap in the literature using data from the National Survey of Religion and Family Life (NSRFL), a 2006 telephone survey of 2,400 working-age adults (ages 18-59), which contai