Volume 66, January 2017, Pages 114-121
Highlights
• Three classes of pornography users were delineated using a latent profile analysis.
• Porn Abstainers (62%) had small porn acceptance, use, and motivations for porn use.
• Complex Porn Users (19%) had high reports of use and many reasons of porn use.
• Auto-Erotic Porn Users (19%) had high reports of use and used it for masturbation.
Abstract
Despite the widespread acceptance and use of pornography, much remains unknown about the heterogeneity among consumers of pornography. Using a sample of 457 college students from a mid-western university in the United States, a latent profile analysis was conducted to identify unique classifications of pornography users considering motivations of pornography use, level of pornography use, age of user, degree of pornography acceptance, and religiosity. Results indicated three classes of pornography users: Porn Abstainers (n = 285), Auto-Erotic Porn Users (n = 85), and Complex Porn Users (n = 87). These three classes of pornography use are carefully defined. The odds of membership in these three unique classes of pornography users was significantly distinguished by relationship status, self-esteem, and gender. These results expand what is known about pornography users by providing a more person-centered approach that is more nuanced in understanding pornography use. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
INTERESTING FINDINGS
Porn users don’t really use to soothe emotions.
The second storyline among all three classes is that using pornography to avoid uncomfortable emotions and turning to pornography when feeling down, sad, or lonely, had some of the lowest reports for all three classes. This illustrates that although many college students are using pornography for sexual arousal, physical pleasure, and assistance in masturbation as illustrated in two of the three classes, few even among high users are using it as a tool to escape or self-soothe.
Porn use is related to lower self esteem
The fourth storyline centered on the predictors of class membership including gender, relationship status, and self-esteem. As expected, results indicated participants that reported higher self-esteem scores had lower odds being placed in the Complex or Auto-Erotic Porn User Classes compared with the class of Porn Abstainers. In one notable study, Nelson et al. (2010) suggested that higher levels of self-worth were related to lower pornography use patterns. The present study’s findings reinforce the negative correlation of self-esteem and pornography use. Due to the present study only offering statistical associations we cannot state cause and effect, however, our results corroborate that they are linked in some capacity.
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