A recent study of 600 teenagers in Spain, indicates that adolescents who consume pornography are more likely to hold traditional sexist views and engage in a variety of risky behaviors. The research, published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, points to the importance of earlier and more comprehensive sexual education, including media literacy around pornography. The findings suggest that a combination of age-appropriate education and open communication could help young people navigate their sexuality more safely and with healthier attitudes toward gender.
The research team aimed to investigate how watching pornography during adolescence relates to attitudes about gender roles and participation in risky sexual behaviors. They were especially interested in examining how these relationships might vary by gender. Prior research has shown links between media exposure and young people’s sexual development, but few studies have analyzed pornography consumption, sexist beliefs, and risky behavior all together in the same group of adolescents.
The authors note that adolescence is a key period when individuals develop their views on relationships, sex, and identity. Exposure to certain media, including sexually explicit material, can play a significant role in shaping those views.
Earlier studies have shown that pornography often depicts unequal gender dynamics, usually portraying women as submissive and men as dominant. These portrayals may reinforce traditional gender roles and unrealistic sexual expectations. In addition, the age at which young people are first exposed to pornography has dropped significantly, with some reporting exposure as early as 13 years old. These trends raise concerns about how unfiltered and often violent content might influence attitudes and behavior, especially when formal sex education is lacking.
“We wanted to test whether patterns other researchers had found also appeared in our context, Galicia, so we looked at links between teenagers’ pornography use, sexist attitudes, and different risky behaviours. Instead of testing just one association, we measured several behaviours and attitudes together in the same sample and ran separate analyses for females and males to see which factors best predict porn use for each group,” said study author Sandra SanmartÃn Feijóo, an assistant lecturer at the University of Burgos.
The study involved 664 students between the ages of 12 and 17 from four secondary schools in the province of Ourense, in northwest Spain. Participants completed a detailed questionnaire about their demographics, pornography use, online and offline sexual behaviors, and attitudes toward gender roles. The research team used a Spanish version of the Social Roles Questionnaire to measure sexist attitudes, which includes two subscales: one for traditional gender beliefs and another for more egalitarian or gender-transcendent attitudes.
To measure behavior, the survey included questions about both online activities (such as sexting or contacting strangers) and offline experiences (such as condom use and sexual regret). These questions were designed to capture a wide range of behaviors, from passive experiences like receiving explicit messages to more active engagement, such as meeting people in person who were first contacted online.
Data were collected during the first half of 2021, with the help of trained prevention workers due to pandemic-related restrictions. Participants and their families provided consent, and all responses were anonymous.
Nearly half of the adolescents in the study had watched pornography at least once in their lives, and just over one in five had done so in the past month. Porn use was more common among boys and older teens. Among 12- to 13-year-olds, about 28 percent had already viewed pornography, a finding the researchers highlight as concerning given their age and the lack of structured sex education in schools.
“The fact that nearly half the sample had ever used pornography underlines how widespread exposure is, even among younger adolescents,” Feijóo told PsyPost. “There were big differences by age and gender: for example, 64.9% of males aged 16–17 reported viewing pornography in the last month, compared with 6.5% of females the same age.”
Those who had watched pornography scored higher on the traditional sexism scale. This subscale includes beliefs such as the idea that certain jobs are more suitable for men than women. However, there was no significant difference between pornography users and non-users in the more egalitarian subscale, which measures support for breaking down gender roles entirely.
The researchers also found that adolescents who consumed pornography were more likely to be involved in both online and offline sexual risk behaviors. These included sexting, having unprotected sex, regretting a sexual experience, and participating in group sex. In some cases, the likelihood of certain behaviors was two to six times higher among pornography users. Receiving explicit messages or photos and contacting strangers online were especially common among this group.
To explore these links further, the researchers ran statistical models separately for males and females to see which behaviors best predicted pornography use. For both groups, receiving sexual messages and accepting friend requests from unknown people online were strong predictors. Among males, two additional behaviors were significant: receiving explicit images or videos and not using condoms during sex. These findings suggest that pornography use may be part of a broader pattern of online and offline risk engagement, particularly for boys.
“To give a few concrete numbers: females who had received sexual text messages were about 2.4 times as likely to report pornography use; while males who received sexual pictures/videos were about 3 times as likely, and those who received sexual text messages were about 1.6 times as likely,” Feijóo explained. “Additionally, males who reported not using a condom were about 2.3 times as likely to report porn use.”
The researchers emphasize that their findings support the need for early, comprehensive sexual education that includes media and pornography literacy. Given that legal restrictions on access to pornography have not prevented underage viewing, educational approaches may be more effective in helping adolescents critically evaluate what they see. This could involve teaching about consent, gender equality, and healthy relationships alongside discussions of how pornography depicts sex and gender roles.
“Our findings reinforce what earlier studies have reported: porn use is common in adolescence, especially among older male teens, and tends to be linked with stronger traditional sexist beliefs and taking part in risky sexual behaviors,” Feijóo said. “Our study doesn’t prove porn causes those attitudes, it shows they’re associated. That this relationship is a pattern across research shows it’s something worth addressing through education and prevention. Teaching ‘porn literacy’ (how to understand and critique porn) and including age-appropriate sex education are practical ways to help young people think critically about what they see when they come across pornography.”
At the same time, the authors caution that their study cannot determine cause and effect. Since the data were collected at one point in time, it is not possible to know whether watching pornography leads to sexist attitudes and risky behavior, or whether those with such attitudes and behaviors are more likely to seek out pornography. Future research should follow adolescents over time to better understand how these patterns develop and whether educational interventions can shift them.
“We found statistically significant associations, but ‘significant’ doesn’t automatically mean large or deterministic,” Feijóo noted. “Statistically significant associations mean the relationship is unlikely to be just chance, but they don’t mean every teen who watches porn will have sexist attitudes or take sexual risks. Even when several studies agree on these results, there may be other factors (e.g., family environment, peer groups, personality traits) influencing both porn use and the behaviours and attitudes we measured.”
“I would like to follow a group of teens over time to test which comes first, porn exposure or the attitudes and behaviours, and to evaluate whether educational interventions combining porn literacy and broader risk-prevention actually reduce harmful attitudes or unsafe behaviors.”
“We should treat pornography use as a common part of adolescent life, whether it’s curiosity or accidental exposure, and respond with open conversation, age-appropriate education, media and porn literacy, and proportionate parental monitoring,” Feijóo added. “Schools, families, and health services should offer safe places for discussion and learning rather than relying only on punishment or shaming.”
The study, “Online Pornography Consumption, Risky Behaviors, and Sexist Attitudes in Adolescence: A Cross-Sectional Survey Study,” was authored by Sandra Feijóo, Vanessa Portela, and Antonio Rial.
