Rates, Age, & Impact of Exposure to Pornography

Full Article Name: Adolescents’ Use of Pornography: Trends over a Ten‑year Period in Sweden

Open Access: No

Abstract

Using survey data from three nationally representative surveys in 2004, 2009, and 2014 among senior high school students in Sweden, this study investigates trends in adolescents’ lifetime prevalence of pornography use, frequency of pornography use, and type of pornography used over time. While almost all boys and a considerable proportion of girls used pornography across the three waves, the lifetime prevalence of pornography use decreased overall for both girls and boys. The share of boys who use pornography frequently increased over the three survey cycles; those who reported using pornography daily increased from 11% in 2004 to 24% in 2014. In contrast, there was no change in girls who reported using pornography daily, while the proportion who never used pornography increased from 40% in 2004 to 51% in 2014. Adolescents appear to use a narrower range of different pornography types over the survey cycles. Multiple logistic regression models were generated to investigate factors associated with pornography use over the 10-year period. The results suggest that rule-breaking behavior, having higher economic status and higher academic achievement were related to boy’s pornography use, while rule-breaking behavior, early sexual debut and victimization were associated with girls’ pornography use.

Relevance

“Boys and girls who demonstrated rule-breaking behaviors like drug use or truancy were more likely to have ever used pornography, used pornography frequently, and used a broader range of pornography.” Among girls, too, victimization was associated with pornography use, which “could indicate that girls may use pornography to re-enact or normalize earlier victimization.” Furthermore, high academic achieving boys were more likely to use pornography than boys in vocational training, likely because the former are more likely to spend time online looking for information.

Citation

Donevan, M., Jonsson, L., Bladh, M., Priebe, G., Fredlund, C., & Svedin, C. G. (2022). Adolescents’ Use of Pornography: Trends over a Ten‑year Period in Sweden. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 51, 1125–1140. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-021-02084-8