Examining Correlates of Problematic Internet Pornography Use Among University Students
AUTHOR(S)
PUBLISHED
2016 in Journal of Behavioral Addictions, Vol. 5(2), pp. 179–191
KEY FINDINGS
- Pornography addiction was found to be linked to depression and anxiety.
- Addictive use of pornography was found to be linked to other substance addictions and behavioral addictions such as alcohol, cannabis, gambling and video game use.
ABSTRACT
Background and aims: The phenomenon of Internet pornography (IP) addiction is gaining increasing attention in the popular media and psychological research. What has not been tested empirically is how frequency and amount of IP use, along with other individual characteristics, are related to symptoms of IP addiction. Methods: 105 female and 86 male university students (mean age 21) from Calgary, Canada, were administered measures of IP use, psychosocial functioning (anxiety and depression, life and relationship satisfaction),... READ FULL ABSTRACT
EXCERPTS
- "We did see a dramatic shift in addictive IP use when participants were using IP once a day or more. Above this frequency, there is an increase in scores of addiction. This pattern would suggest that addictive use of IP, which is associated with poorer psychosocial functioning, emerges only when people begin to use IP daily. However, as the data from the addictive measures of IP use were based on self-report, this also suggests that poor psychosocial functioning may coincide with frequent IP use only when the individual feels that their use is problematic or addictive."
- "Addictive use of IP appears to be moderately correlated with video game addiction. This should not be necessarily surprising, as there are strong similarities between these two addictions. Both utilize computers and the Internet, and the way that either medium is accessed and interacted with is virtually the same. Moreover, many adult and erotic video games have been created in recent years (e.g., BoneCraft, Leisure Suit Larry) and their popularity is steadily increasing. Even commercial video games are beginning to show increasing levels of sexual content (e.g., God of War, The Witcher, Grand Theft Auto)."
