But What’s Your Partner Up to? Associations Between Relationship Quality and Pornography Use Depend on Contextual Patterns of Use Within the Couple
It is commonly assumed that exposure to pornography harms relationships because pornography changes the way that individuals think, feel, and behave in problematic ways. In the current research, we contribute to a small but growing body of work that challenges this assumption by carefully scrutinizi...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-07-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.661347/full |
| _version_ | 1819070595031105536 |
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| author | Taylor Kohut Kiersten A. Dobson Rhonda N. Balzarini Ronald D. Rogge Amanda M. Shaw James K. McNulty V. Michelle Russell William A. Fisher Lorne Campbell |
| author_facet | Taylor Kohut Kiersten A. Dobson Rhonda N. Balzarini Ronald D. Rogge Amanda M. Shaw James K. McNulty V. Michelle Russell William A. Fisher Lorne Campbell |
| author_sort | Taylor Kohut |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | It is commonly assumed that exposure to pornography harms relationships because pornography changes the way that individuals think, feel, and behave in problematic ways. In the current research, we contribute to a small but growing body of work that challenges this assumption by carefully scrutinizing the relational context of pornography use. In contrast to dominant theoretical explanations in this field, we argue that at least some of the apparent negative “impacts” of pornography use on relationship quality may reflect partner dissimilarity in pornography use behavior rather than the consequences of exposure to such materials. Moreover, we further examine a particular type of pornography use – shared use with a partner – which previous evidence suggests may be positively associated with relationship quality. To this end, we sought to test whether dyadic patterns of pornography use, and related attributes, were associated with sexual and relationship satisfaction in two cross-sectional (N1 = 200; N3 = 207) and two longitudinal (N2 = 77; N4 = 277) samples of heterosexual couples. Across these samples, we found consistent evidence that partners who watch pornography together report higher relationship and sexual satisfaction than partners who do not, and notably, this association was not moderated by gender. Independent of this association, we also found evidence of a similarity-dissimilarity effect, such that the solitary pornography use of one partner was negatively associated with their own relationship and sexual satisfaction, but only in cases where their romantic partners used little or no pornography alone. Further consideration of several correlates of pornography use established comparable patterns of results for dissimilarity in attitudes toward pornography, erotophobia-erotophilia, sexual preferences, and sex drive. Importantly, only dissimilarity in sex drive statistically accounted for dissimilarity in solitary pornography use, suggesting that differences in sex drive may be implicated in the associations between pornography use and relationship quality. These findings demonstrate that links between pornography use and relationship health are partially a function of different dyadic patterns of pornography use within couples and do not always suggest relational harm. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-21T17:08:26Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2941577b100049e9ab1b9684cf81a4f5 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-21T17:08:26Z |
| publishDate | 2021-07-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-2941577b100049e9ab1b9684cf81a4f52022-12-21T18:56:27ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782021-07-011210.3389/fpsyg.2021.661347661347But What’s Your Partner Up to? Associations Between Relationship Quality and Pornography Use Depend on Contextual Patterns of Use Within the CoupleTaylor Kohut0Kiersten A. Dobson1Rhonda N. Balzarini2Ronald D. Rogge3Amanda M. Shaw4James K. McNulty5V. Michelle Russell6William A. Fisher7Lorne Campbell8Department of Psychology, Western University, London, ON, CanadaDepartment of Psychology, Western University, London, ON, CanadaDepartment of Psychology, Western University, London, ON, CanadaDepartment of Psychology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, United StatesDepartment of Psychology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, United StatesDepartment of Psychology, University of Florida, Tallahassee, FL, United StatesDepartment of Psychology, University of Florida, Tallahassee, FL, United StatesDepartment of Psychology, Western University, London, ON, CanadaDepartment of Psychology, Western University, London, ON, CanadaIt is commonly assumed that exposure to pornography harms relationships because pornography changes the way that individuals think, feel, and behave in problematic ways. In the current research, we contribute to a small but growing body of work that challenges this assumption by carefully scrutinizing the relational context of pornography use. In contrast to dominant theoretical explanations in this field, we argue that at least some of the apparent negative “impacts” of pornography use on relationship quality may reflect partner dissimilarity in pornography use behavior rather than the consequences of exposure to such materials. Moreover, we further examine a particular type of pornography use – shared use with a partner – which previous evidence suggests may be positively associated with relationship quality. To this end, we sought to test whether dyadic patterns of pornography use, and related attributes, were associated with sexual and relationship satisfaction in two cross-sectional (N1 = 200; N3 = 207) and two longitudinal (N2 = 77; N4 = 277) samples of heterosexual couples. Across these samples, we found consistent evidence that partners who watch pornography together report higher relationship and sexual satisfaction than partners who do not, and notably, this association was not moderated by gender. Independent of this association, we also found evidence of a similarity-dissimilarity effect, such that the solitary pornography use of one partner was negatively associated with their own relationship and sexual satisfaction, but only in cases where their romantic partners used little or no pornography alone. Further consideration of several correlates of pornography use established comparable patterns of results for dissimilarity in attitudes toward pornography, erotophobia-erotophilia, sexual preferences, and sex drive. Importantly, only dissimilarity in sex drive statistically accounted for dissimilarity in solitary pornography use, suggesting that differences in sex drive may be implicated in the associations between pornography use and relationship quality. These findings demonstrate that links between pornography use and relationship health are partially a function of different dyadic patterns of pornography use within couples and do not always suggest relational harm.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.661347/fullpornographyromantic relationshiprelationship satisfactionsexual satisfactionerotica |
| spellingShingle | Taylor Kohut Kiersten A. Dobson Rhonda N. Balzarini Ronald D. Rogge Amanda M. Shaw James K. McNulty V. Michelle Russell William A. Fisher Lorne Campbell But What’s Your Partner Up to? Associations Between Relationship Quality and Pornography Use Depend on Contextual Patterns of Use Within the Couple Frontiers in Psychology pornography romantic relationship relationship satisfaction sexual satisfaction erotica |
| title | But What’s Your Partner Up to? Associations Between Relationship Quality and Pornography Use Depend on Contextual Patterns of Use Within the Couple |
| title_full | But What’s Your Partner Up to? Associations Between Relationship Quality and Pornography Use Depend on Contextual Patterns of Use Within the Couple |
| title_fullStr | But What’s Your Partner Up to? Associations Between Relationship Quality and Pornography Use Depend on Contextual Patterns of Use Within the Couple |
| title_full_unstemmed | But What’s Your Partner Up to? Associations Between Relationship Quality and Pornography Use Depend on Contextual Patterns of Use Within the Couple |
| title_short | But What’s Your Partner Up to? Associations Between Relationship Quality and Pornography Use Depend on Contextual Patterns of Use Within the Couple |
| title_sort | but what s your partner up to associations between relationship quality and pornography use depend on contextual patterns of use within the couple |
| topic | pornography romantic relationship relationship satisfaction sexual satisfaction erotica |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.661347/full |
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