Prevalence and Determinants of Online-Sex Use in the German Population
AUTHOR(S)
PUBLISHED
2017 in PLoS ONE 12(6), e0176449
KEY FINDINGS
- Online-pornography use was significantly positively associated with an anxious partner attachment pattern in couple relationships.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: The unlimited access to sexual features in the World Wide Web has raised concerns about excessive and problematic online-sex use. However, little is known about antecedents of internet-sex use of different intensity. Based on a representative German sample of 2,522 participants between the ages of 14 and 97 years, the aims of the present study were (1) to determine the prevalence rates of online-sex users with the short version (ISSTGSV) of the Internet Sex Screening Test and (2) to associate online-sex use... READ FULL ABSTRACT
EXCERPTS
- "The association of intensive online-sex use to anxious partner attachment is an interesting finding. The internet provides unlimited opportunities for enacting all kinds of phantasies in a virtual world, experiencing sexual arousal and satisfaction (e.g. by masturbating). This may be highly attractive for insecurely attached individuals, especially when they find it difficult to commit to a real-life relationship due to fear of rejection or low self-esteem. For anxiously attached participants living in a partnership, online-sex use may provide a compensatory function, boosting self-esteem in a self-governed world of virtual sexual arousal parallel to an offline relationship which may rather induce fears of dependence, rejection or loss."
