| Description |
The impacts of pornography consumption have received increased examination in recent years, and clients are increasingly seeking related help. Researchers have debated how best to conceptualize problematic pornography use. Compulsive, impulsive, and addictive frameworks are frequently cited, though there is disagreement about their meaning; the commonality is that they pathologize pornography viewing. A recent, alternative vein of literature points to the integral role that values play in how individuals perceive pornography. Given distress is a key reason clients seek help, I sought to identify variables associated with it. I examined the roles of sexual desire, moral incongruence, feelings of dysregulation, and shame-proneness in predicting subjective distress among consumers. In ancillary models, I also examined how two role identities, religious parishioner and committed partner, relate to moral incongruence associated with pornography viewing. Surveys were administered through Amazon Mechanical Turk to U.S. adults (n = 559) who endorsed viewing pornography. Structural equation models supported moderated mediation, where the positive relationship between sexual desire and subjective distress was fully mediated by feelings of dysregulation, and the relationship between sexual desire and feelings of dysregulation was moderated by moral incongruence. Moral incongruence was, further, the largest direct predictor of subjective distress, while shame-proneness was not significantly related to it. In all, these variables explained 77% of the variance in subjective distress associated with pornography viewing. The ancillary models showed that perceiving one's religion disapproves of pornography viewing was positively associated with moral incongruence; that religious identity salience moderates this relationship was partially supported. Perceiving that one's partner disapproves of pornography viewing was likewise positively associated with moral incongruence, though partner identity salience did not moderate this relationship. This study integrates heretofore disparate strands of literature, suggests targets for intervention research, and reinforces recent findings that values play an integral role in whether individuals perceive their pornography viewing as dysregulated and feel distressed by it. How individuals interpret their viewing appears to be embedded in social roles and context. Given their person-in-environment perspective, social workers are uniquely fitted to contribute to discourse on this topic. Implications for social work education and practice are discussed. |
