Development of a Measure to Assess What Young Heterosexual Adults Say They Learn About Sex from Pornography

Abstract

This study involved the development of two new measures to assess what some young heterosexual-identifying adults report learning about sex from pornography. Inventory items were generated from an extensive literature review and six qualitative focus group sessions with young adults (N = 54) aged 18–29 which explored how pornography could be used as a source of sexual information. A total of 135 items pertaining to sexual learning from pornography were produced, reviewed and categorized by a sample of young adults (n = 9), and finally reviewed for item and construct relevance by a panel of pornography, sex education and scale development experts (n = 6). Inventory items were administered to a sample of young adult university students (n = 1306). Two separate exploratory factor analyses were conducted for the female and male datasets. The final factors were reviewed by a panel of young adults = 8) to identify the theme of each factor. Both the SIPI-F and SIPI-M yielded three factors: (1) How to be a good sexual partner, (2) Body aesthetic, and (3) Sexual exploration. Results show that pornography provides information about a range of sex-related topics. Findings also show that more frequent female pornography users reported learning more about how to be a good sexual partner and body aesthetic than less frequent pornography users. The SIPI-F and SIPI-M can be useful for examining a variety of questions regarding the use of pornography as an informal source of sexual information and its correlates.