Impact of Pornography on Sexual Satisfaction

Abstract

Although accumulating studies indicate that pornography use is associated with lower sexual satisfaction, little is known about these causal relationships among adolescents. The current study aims to investigate the effect of pornography use on sexual satisfaction, including the potential mediating effect of physical self-esteem and the moderating role of perceived realism on the relationship between pornography use and sexual satisfaction. Longitudinal two-wave data from N = 945 adolescents aged between 12-18 (M = 14.76, SD = 1.19) was collected using online questionnaires. Results from hierarchical linear regression analyses showed that the relationship between pornography use and sexual satisfaction is not significant, whereby a mediating effect of physical self-esteem was not found. Although the opposite direction was hypothesized, a positive moderating effect of perceived realism was found indicating that among adolescents who (regularly) use pornography, those who perceive pornography as realistic experience more sexual satisfaction than those who do not perceive it as realistic. These findings imply that pornography does not have negative effects, considering its positive effect on sexual satisfaction. Nevertheless, to guide adolescents in successfully handling and interpreting pornographic content, education should implement a curriculum that focuses on critical media analysis of pornography.