A Longitudinal Analysis of US Adults’ Pornography Exposure

Abstract

Several studies have explored whether pornography exposure is associated with a casual approach to sex. Much of this research, however, has been cross-sectional, has assessed only straightforward exposure–casual sex associations, and has employed convenience samples of adolescents. This study employed nationally representative longitudinal data from the General Social Survey to explore whether casual sex behavior predicted over time change in US adults’ pornography exposure and whether pornography exposure predicted over time change in US adults’ casual sex behavior. Casual sex behavior did not predict over time change in pornography exposure, but pornography exposure did predict over time change in casual sex behavior. To test the prediction of Wright’s acquisition, activation, application model of sexual socialization (3AM) that negative affective states make the application of risky sexual scripts provided by sexual media more likely ( Wright, 2011a ) the moderating role of unhappiness was explored. In support of the model, pornography exposure was associated with nearly a sevenfold over time increase in the odds of having engaged in casual sex for unhappy individuals, but was unrelated to the casual sex behavior of very happy individuals.