Longitudinal assessment of the association between the use of sexually explicit material, hyperfemininity, and sexual agency in adolescent women

Abstract

There is growing public concern that sexually explicit material (SEM) negatively affects women, given that SEM often promotes women’s sexual objectification, passivity and submission to male desire. Using a sample of 552 female high school students (Mage at baseline = 15.8, SD =.48) who participated in a 5-wave longitudinal study in Croatia, we assessed if and to what extent were hyperfemininity and sexual agency, as possible, respectively, negative and positive outcomes of SEM use, cross-sectionally related to adolescent women’s sexual satisfaction. We then assessed longitudinal associations between SEM use and hyperfemininity/sexual agency over a period of 24 months. The results of the cross-sectional analysis indicated that sexual satisfaction was not associated with hyperfeminity, but it was positively associated with sexual agency. The results of directed latent growth modelling indicated that baseline levels of SEM use were significantly and positively associated with both sexual agency and hyperfemininity two years later, and an increase in SEM use over time was significantly, albeit weakly, related only to hyperfemininity. Given that SEM use may contribute to the development of hyperfemininity, our findings call for further investments into comprehensive sexual education programs for youth that include discussions about SEM.

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ORCID for Verena Klein: orcid.org/0000-0002-5830-7991

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