Kate Dawson, Saoirse Nic Gabhainn & Pádraig MacNeela
Received 02 Aug 2018, Accepted 14 Sep 2018, Published online: 08 Jan 2019
https://doi.org/10.1080/23268743.2018.1525307
Abstract
This study explored the frequently held belief that pornography use for sexual information occurs in the absence of good sex education and examined whether such a relationship was moderated by a person’s sexual orientation. A more general goal for the study was to explore pornography viewing habits of Irish university students. Cross-sectional quantitative data were collected from a convenience sample of Irish university students, aged 18–24 years (n = 1380). Findings show that homosexual and bisexual participants reported less satisfaction with their sex education, a majority had used pornography for sexual information, but being dissatisfied with school-based sex education did not predict pornography use for sexual information. Neither did using pornography for sexual information predict greater satisfaction with current sexual knowledge, but it was associated with greater aspirations to know more about sexuality and sexual health. Individuals may use pornography for information regardless of their sex education in school.
KEYWORDS: Porn, sexual information, sex education, university students, Ireland, LGBT
STATS FROM STUDY
Our findings indicate that Irish young adults engage with pornography more frequently than in many other countries, have a range of motivations for pornography engagement and may be among the youngest in the western world regarding first pornography engagement. In total, 90% of females, 98.6% of males, 94% of non-binary participants and 80% of transgender participants reported that they had seen pornography; however, the total number of non-binary participants and transgender participants in our sample was small. A large proportion of the sample reported first engagement under 13 years of age, with 65.5% of males and 30% of females reporting this. Age of first pornography use for masturbation purposes varied, with 45% of the sample first using pornography for these reasons between 14 and 17 years of age; 52% and 9% of females first used pornography to masturbate under 13 years of age. A majority of males reported more frequent engagement (77%), in comparison to 15% of females
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