Mental Health
Are adolescents who consume pornography different from those who engaged in online sexual activities?
Open Access: No.
Abstract
Research has indicated several differences between those who solely engaged in online pornography use and those who mainly engaged in partnered sexual activities. We examined whether the distinction between solo and partnered sexual activities might be extrapolated to the virtual arena, while studying the psychological differences between adolescents who engaged in each activity. Israeli adolescents (N = 2112; 788 boys and 1,324 girls), age 14–18 (M = 16.52, SD = 1.63), participated in an online study. Each participant completed a randomly ordered battery of self-report questionnaires on frequency of pornography use, sexually related online activities, personality traits, narcissism, emotion regulation strategies, social intimacy and socio-demographic factors. Adolescents who consumed pornography (i.e., solo online activity) are mostly boys, introvert, neurotic, less agreeable, and with less conscientious judgement. In addition, they are more overt narcissist, use more suppression and less reappraisal to regulate emotions, and are low on social intimacy. Adolescents who engaged in online partnered sexual activities are mostly girls, extrovert, open to experience, neurotic, less agreeable, and with less conscientious judgement. In addition, they are more narcissist and high on social intimacy. We discuss the distinctiveness of the differences and their place in the virtual era.
Relevance
Adolescents who consume pornography are, in part, more neurotic, less agreeable, have lower conscientious judgement, and poorer emotional regulation, than those who do not consume pornography.
They also score higher on narcissism: “they show heightened exhibitionism, exaggerated sense of self-importance, grandiosity and desire for attention, alongside hypersensitivity to criticism, a lack of self-confidence, and being socially withdrawn.”
Last, adolescents who consume pornography are lower on “social intimacy…The core experience of intimacy motivation is a noninstrumental, reciprocal sharing of desires, feelings and thoughts” whereas adolescent use of pornography “is linked with perceiving sex as something primarily physical with a goal to have a good time, and that such perception is associated with lower romantic intimacy in adulthood.”
Citation
Efrati, Y., & Amichai-Hamburger, Y. (2020). Are adolescents who consume pornography different from those who engaged in online sexual activities? Children and Youth Services Review, 111, Article 104843. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.104843
