Stephanie Blickfeldt and Dr. Randal D. Day, School of Family Life

Purpose Pundits, popular press, political groups, and religious organizations make the claim that the current rate of pornography use is a determinant to society and individuals in family life (Kretchmer & Carveth, 2001). Due to the concerns expressed by such figures and my own personal concerns with the seemingly increasing rates of pornography use through the internet, my professor and I found it important to explore its actual presence. Through this venture, I was personally responsible for completing an extensive review of literature to discover what past social science research has contributed to this subject.

Through this processes, I was disappointed to find that claims of pervasive pornography use are generally unsubstantiated in empirical research. Existing pornography research findings have been scant and inconsistent narrowly focusing on clinical adult populations or criminal youth (Carroll et. al, 2008). Basic frequencies of pornography use and its level of pervasiveness in general society is yet to be measured, although a multitude of studies confirm that a romantic partner’s use leads to negative outcomes that cripple relationships (Manning, 2006). The purpose of our study was to explore the frequency of pornography use within a non-clinical sample of parents. While it was beyond the scope of this study to analyze the long-term use of pornography, we believe that is was an excellent starting point in assessing its presence in the community.

Sample It is commonly reported that the most frequent users of pornography are white, male and middle-aged (Manning, 2006). Although this assumption was possibly skewed from past samples of males from couple counseling and university classes, we thought it would be fitting to analyze pornography use results from parents within the Flourishing Families Project. Participant families for the FFP were selected from a large northwestern city and were interviewed annually in 2007, 2008, and 2009. For this study’s purposes, our sample comes from the first two waves: 349 mothers (M age = 43.44, SD = 5.54) and fathers (M age = 45.32, SD = 6.23). Seventy-nine percent of the couples were European American, 5% were African American, 5% were Asian American, 2% were Hispanic, and 9% indicated that they were “mixed/biracial” or of another ethnicity. Fourteen percent of couples reported an income less than $25,000 per year, 16% made between $25,000 and $50,000 a year, and 70% made more than $50,000 per year; with 21% of mothers and 5% of fathers reporting being unemployed.  In terms of education, 70% of mothers and fathers reported having a bachelor’s degree or higher.  The retention rate between Wave 1 and Wave 2 was 96%.

Data Measures In the FFP partner questionnaire, five measures were used to assess pornography-use within the couple relationship. A 6-point Likert scale of 0-5 was used ranging from “never” to “every day or almost every day.” Participants answered the following questions: During the past twelve months, on how many days did you: (1) View pornographic magazines? (2) View pornographic videos or movies (3) View pornographic Internet sites?

For the final two questions, couples rated themselves with options a-h: (1) On average, how many hours a week do you spend viewing pornographic materials (magazines, movies, Internet sites, adult-novels, etc.)?  (2) When you view pornography, what percent of the time do you view it with your spouse or partner versus viewing it alone?

a. I never view pornography.                        e. About 50% alone, 50% with partner.

b. 100% alone, 0% with partner.                   f. About 25% alone, 75% with partner.

c. About 90% alone, 10% with partner.        g. About 10% alone, about 90% with partner.

d. About 75% alone, 25% with partner.        h. About 0% alone, 100% with partner.

Results Surprisingly, a stark majority of males and females reported that they did not use pornography. Within the male population (all of whom were fathers) approximately 70% of fathers stated that they “never” used pornography in response to question one, with nearly 90% of mothers reporting the same. For those who did view pornography, none reported use with their partner, and it was these numbers that were generally consistent across all measures and waves (There were fewer measures in wave one, but wave two only revealed that those who did view pornography usually chose the Internet as their primary source). Only 10% of the sample refused to answer the question available. This was significant due to the fact that Internet and media use were frequently used by both genders. Overall, couples do not use pornography within their homes, or it was not important for their entertainment, or it was not important to “enhance” their sexual relations.

Frustrations and Conclusions The greatest frustration in connection with this project was deciding how to discuss and respond to the overall results. While it was obviously good news that very few parents admitted to viewing pornography, it was difficult to know how valid their responses were. Although the questions were in the middle of a comprehensive study and the responses were anonymous, it is very possible that the outcome would have been different if we had included a definition for “pornography.”  While coming up with a standardized definition would be next to impossible (current researchers are still tackling that debate), I personally think it did have a large effect on how people responded.

It was also difficult to have great confidence in on our own measures, because the scale was piloted for this particular project and had no standardized validity score to rely upon.  However, it is encouraging that we can be confident that couples within the general community would at least not like to respond to the fact that they use pornography thereby making it continually socially unacceptable. It is important to continue these measures within the study and to see how pornography use correlates with other couple issues such as marital conflict, sexual satisfaction, martial satisfaction, stress, and cohesion.

 

I am grateful I was involved in a project that explored this important issue in a straightforward, empirical, and basic approach. As our efforts are improved upon, I believe that families and communities will be armed with a greater knowledge of how pervasive the pornography problem is and that they can be empowered to keep it out of their homes.

References

• Carroll, J. S., Padilla-Walker, L.M., Nelson, L.J., Olsen, C.D.(2008). Generation XXX: Pornography acceptance and use among emerging adults. Journal of Adolescent Research, 23(1), 6-30.  
• Kretchmer, S.B., and Carveth, R. (2001). Libraries and the Internet. In T. Hensley’s The boundaries of freedom of expression & order in American democracy (pp.202-210). Ohio: Kent State University Press.
• Manning, J.C. (2006). The impact of pornography on marriage and the family: A review of the research. Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity, 13(2-3), 131-165.