Women with higher self-acceptance are less prone to problematic pornography use

Recent longitudinal research has found that women with higher levels of self-acceptance are less prone to problematic pornography use. Additionally, women who use pornography more frequently tend to experience greater difficulties in engaging in goal-directed behaviors. The findings have been published in Computers in Human Behavior.

Problematic pornography use refers to compulsive or excessive consumption of pornography that negatively impacts a person’s daily life, relationships, and mental well-being. It is associated with a loss of control, where individuals continue using pornography despite wanting to stop. Problematic pornography use can lead to distress, guilt, and interference with work, social activities, and romantic relationships.

Some researchers link it to behavioral addictions, as it shares similarities with compulsive gambling and substance use disorders. Stress, difficulties in emotional regulation, and underlying mental health conditions such as anxiety or depression can contribute to the development of problematic pornography use habits. Over time, excessive pornography use may alter brain reward pathways, reinforcing compulsive behavior.

Study author Ke Yu and her colleagues note that most research on pornography use has been conducted on men, making it difficult to generalize those findings to women. To address this gap, they conducted a study examining whether pornography use frequency, difficulties in goal-directed behavior, and self-acceptance could predict perceived problematic online pornography use a year later.

The researchers hypothesized that individuals who use pornography more frequently would have greater difficulty engaging in goal-directed behaviors and lower self-acceptance. Additionally, they expected that self-acceptance would moderate the relationship between pornography use frequency and perceived problematic pornography use. The distinction between pornography use frequency and problematic use lies in the fact that frequency refers to how often someone consumes pornography, while problematic use involves compulsive behavior, loss of control, and negative consequences in daily life.

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The study participants consisted of 559 female Chinese university students from Sichuan, China, with an average age of approximately 20 years.

Participants completed two online surveys one year apart. The surveys included assessments of perceived problematic online pornography use (using the Cyber-Pornography Use Inventory), pornography use frequency (e.g., “Approximately how often have you viewed pornography [e.g., magazine, Internet, video] in the past 30 days?”), difficulties in engaging in goal-directed behaviors (measured by the Shortened Version of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale), and self-acceptance (assessed with the Self-Acceptance Questionnaire). The first survey included all these assessments, while the second survey, conducted a year later, measured only perceived problematic online pornography use.

The results indicated that women who exhibited higher levels of problematic pornography use at the start of the study were more likely to show elevated problematic use one year later. At both time points, greater problematic pornography use was associated with higher pornography use frequency, lower self-acceptance, and greater difficulty in engaging in goal-directed behaviors.

Further analysis revealed that self-acceptance moderated the relationship between problematic pornography use and pornography use frequency. Problematic pornography use was linked to how often these women used pornography only if their self-acceptance levels were average or lower. Among women with above-average self-acceptance, pornography use frequency was not associated with problematic pornography use.

“Our findings advance knowledge of the complex underlying psychological mechanisms of perceived problematic online pornography use by providing evidence of both the direct and/or moderated roles of pornography use frequency, difficulties in engaging in goal-directed behavior, and self-acceptance in these mechanisms,” the study authors concluded.

The study contributes to the scientific understanding of psychological underpinnings of pornography use. However, it should be noted that the study was exclusively based on self-reports while dealing with a topic that carries significant social stigma. Because of this, it is possible that reporting bias might have impacted the results.

The paper, “Self-regulation deficiencies and perceived problematic online pornography use among young Chinese women: The role of self-acceptance,” was authored by Ke Yu, Anise M.S. Wu, Chun Feng, Wen Zhao, and Guoguo Zuo.