| Title: | Cybersex, mental health and intimacy: an exploratory study among a population with psychoactive substance use disorder. PhD diss., 2018. http://repositorio.ul.pt/handle/10451/37890 |
| Author: | Pires, Teodomiro Miguel Basto Frazão Urbano |
| Advisor: | Ribeiro, Maria Teresa, 1962- |
| Keywords: | Saúde mental Substâncias psicoactivas Intimidade Teses de mestrado – 2018 |
| Defense Date: | 2018 |
| Abstract: | Cybersex refers to using the Internet to access various online sexual activities. Several authors mention that problematic cybersex has substance addiction as a comorbidity, but there are no studies that demonstrate this. Thus, we investigated the prevalence of cybersex use in a sample of 100 people under treatment for substance use disorders and studied the relationships that the use of cybersex has with mental health, with subjective complaints in daily life due to cybersex activities and the potential symptoms of cybersex addiction, as well as the intimacy of the couple (according to the participant’s perception). We also analyzed the association between mental health and subjective complaints in everyday life due to cybersex activities and potential symptoms of cybersex addiction. In addition, we studied the relation between four characteristics of the sample (age, sex, psychoactive substance of choice and marital status) and the use of cybersex. In the absence of previous studies that relate cybersex to psychoactive substance addiction, this investigation consists of an exploratory and descriptive study, where a questionnaire was applied, composed of a Participant Characterization Questionnaire, a Cybersex Use Questionnaire, the Short Internet Addiction Test Adapted to Cybersex (Portuguese version), the Anxiety, Depression and Stress Scales, and the Psychological Well-Being Scales (reduced trial version). From the present study, it can be concluded that there is a high prevalence of cybersex use throughout life in the population with psychoactive substance use disorders; that individuals who have cocaine as drug of choice have significantly longer time of use of pornography and means of frequency of use of most of the cybersex activities than those who have alcohol as substance of choice; that the male and younger individuals are the ones with the highest prevalence of cybersex use in the last 6 months; that the frequency of use does not vary between sexes in any of the online sexual activities studied; that the frequency of use of pornography and the search for information on sex or sexual practices is related to symptoms of cybersex dependence and to subjective complaints in the daily life; while the frequency of exchange of messages and / or images of sexual content is related to psychological well-being. The results also show that participants who are involved in stable relationships have the perception that cybersex positively influences the relationship of intimacy with the partner and that those who are not in a stable relationship have a tendency to use cybersex more often, to present worse mental health, more subjective everyday complaints due to online sexual activities and more potential symptoms of cybersex addiction. The possible implications of this work are also discussed and new research approaches are suggested, taking into account the limitations indicated. |
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