Mental Health
Problematic pornography use and psychological distress: A longitudinal study in a large US sample.
Open Access: No.
Abstract
Problematic pornography use (PPU) has been positively associated with psychological distress (i.e., anxiety and depression) in numerous cross-sectional studies. In the present study, we examined the trajectory of PPU and its association with psychological distress over time. We conducted a one-year, three-wave longitudinal study among US adults (n = 4363, 46.4 % women, M(Age) = 50, SD(Age) = 16.15) and examined changes in PPU and psychological distress. Specifically, we assessed bivariate correlations and a random-intercept autoregressive cross-lagged panel model. PPU was assessed by the Brief Pornography Screen (BPS), and psychological distress was assessed by the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-2 (GAD-2) and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). Between each six-month period, we found that BPS bivariate intercorrelations were strong (ρ = 0.712, 0.726) and BPS autoregressive paths remained moderate (β = 0.370, 0.408). Surprisingly, the positive associations between BPS and psychological distress scores from descriptive correlations were determined by a strong random-intercept correlation (r = 0.962), while cross-lagged paths remained small and negative (β=-0.189, -0.211, -0.214, -0.230, respectively). This suggested a robust trait-like between-person association between PPU and psychological distress, with negligibly small time-dependent within-person inhibitory effects occurring. PPU appears time-consistent (e.g., most participants remained in their initial clinical category) and robustly associated with psychological distress over time. We speculate that inhibitory within-person effects may possibly reflect short-term coping behavior and depressive drive inhibition, while in the long term, further manifesting PPU.
Relevance
This study found that problematic pornography use [PPU] and psychological distress “are strongly, time-consistently, and positively associated. This means that individuals who generally experience PPU also generally experience psychological distress and vice versa.”
Citation
Engelhardt, R., Geppert, R., Grubbs, J. B., von Oertzen, T., Trommer, D., Maes, J., & Kraus, S. W. (2025). Problematic pornography use and psychological distress: A longitudinal study in a large US sample. Addictive behaviors, 169, 108398. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2025.108398
