Abstract
Pornography use and intimate partner violence (IPV) are both prevalent in romantic relationships. However, information is lacking about whether pornography use predicts IPV. This study examined the relation between frequency of pornography use (FPU) and IPV across a span of 4 months in a sample of 132 different-sex couple dyads. At least one partner in each couple was attending a Canadian university. Participants (N = 264) completed online measures of pornography use, IPV, and social desirability at baseline and at a 4-month follow-up. Two longitudinal actor–partner interdependence models using a structural equation framework to conduct path analyses demonstrated that (a) higher FPU among men at baseline predicted increases in IPV perpetration and victimization from baseline to 4-month follow-up for both men and women and (b) women’s baseline FPU did not predict change in IPV over time for themselves or their partners. These findings suggest that frequent pornography use among male partners in different-sex romantic relationships may represent an under-recognized risk factor for IPV, and further research is needed to identify latent factors that may be contributing to this relation. Although women’s baseline FPU did not predict changes in IPV over time, this may be because women used pornography less frequently than men.
Highlights
Pornography use has increased as it has become more accessible on the Internet, and online pornography use is prevalent globally
Using a longitudinal dyadic design, we examined the relation between frequency of pornography use (FPU) and intimate partner violence (IPV) across a 4-month span in different-sex couple dyads
Spearman’s rank-order correlations between romantic partners’ reports of IPV perpetration and victimization at both Time 1 (T1) (ρ = .45 and ρ = .59, ps < .001, respectively) and Time 2 (T2) (ρ = .47 and ρ = .57, ps < .001, respectively) confirmed that respondents’ rates of IPV perpetration and victimization were related to those of their partners’, suggesting the need to analyze the data at the couple-level
Summary
Pornography use has increased as it has become more accessible on the Internet, and online pornography use is prevalent globally. Researchers estimate that 71–80% of men and 28–59% of women use pornography (Bridges & Morokoff, 2010; Hatch et al, 2020; Minarcik et al, 2016; Poulsen et al, 2013), with men viewing pornography more often than women (Petersen & Hyde, 2010). Intimate partner violence (IPV) is harmful physical, sexual, or emotional behaviors committed by a current or former spouse or romantic partner (Breiding et al, 2015; Dutton & Goodman, 2005), and it is quite prevalent. According to a national victimization survey in Canada (Lysova et al, 2019), 2.9% of men and 1.7% of women reported experiencing physical and/ or sexual IPV in their current romantic relationship within the last 5 years. Among 10,565 U.S college students, researchers reported the following proportions of men and women, respectively, who endorsed experiencing different types of IPV at least once during their time in college: 33.8% and 38.1% endorsed physical IPV perpetration, 41.9% and 32.4% endorsed physical IPV victimization, 23.0% and 13.6% endorsed sexual IPV perpetration, 27.0% and 30.1% endorsed sexual IPV victimization, 86.5% and 86.4% endorsed psychological IPV perpetration, and 86.5% and 83.0% endorsed psychological IPV victimization (Fass et al, 2008)
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