Violence
Prospective Associations Between Pornography Viewing and Sexual Aggression Among Adolescents.
Open Access: No.
Abstract
Adolescence is a critical period for sexuality development; this study examined prospective associations between pornography use and sexual aggression using a longitudinal study of middle and high school students surveyed five times across 3 years (mean age = 13.7 years at baseline; 53.2% female; 76.5% White; 21.0% Native American; 88.9% heterosexual). Across waves, 15.7%-29.0% of adolescents had viewed pornography in the past 6 months. Results indicated significant, reciprocal associations between pornography and sexual harassment perpetration that were stronger for male adolescents, and some significant associations between pornography use and subsequent sexual assault perpetration. Findings underscore the need to consider multiple theories of the link between pornography viewing and aggression and need for media literacy sexual education beginning in middle school..
Relevance
Among adolescents in middle school and high school, the results of this study “suggested reciprocal associations between pornography viewing and sexual harassment perpetration.” There was also an association between viewing pornography and sexual assault perpetration.
The “the beliefs and attitudes represented in much pornography (seeing sexuality as impersonal, viewing people as sexual objects) may promote sexual harassment. Given the gendered nature of pornography, it was not surprising that we found these associations to be somewhat more frequent among male adolescents.”
Citation
Waterman, E. A., Wesche, R., Morris, G., Edwards, K. M., & Banyard, V. L. (2022). Prospective Associations Between Pornography Viewing and Sexual Aggression Among Adolescents. Journal of research on adolescence, 32(4), 1612–1625. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12745
