Attitudes towards pornography and sexual well-being among young women in the UK

Abstract

With the increasing prevalence of sexual content in media and evolving sexual/social norms, young women are exposed to pornography more frequently. This study aims to explore the mechanisms linking young women’s attitudes toward pornography and sexual well-being. Involving 306 women from the UK (mean age = 20.12 years), the study examined how attitudes toward pornography are associated with sexual satisfaction and comfort with sex, with potential mediating factors including emotion after porn use, frequency of use, and sexual communication. Results indicate that positive attitudes toward porn are associated with higher sexual satisfaction and comfort with sex, whereas no association was found between negative attitudes toward porn and these variables. Sexual communication mediated the relationship between positive attitudes and sexual well-being, but neither emotion after porn use nor frequency of use served as mediators. Findings suggest that women with positive attitudes may experience less internal conflict related to pornography use. Negative attitudes, while correlated with emotional discomfort, were not associated with broader sexual well-being, possibly reflecting adaptive strategies for managing personal ambivalence. These results emphasize the need for sex education that critically examines and constructively addresses the psychosexual impact of pornography use on young women’s sexual development.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Roger Ingham: orcid.org/0000-0001-7964-413X

ORCID for Heather Armstrong: orcid.org/0000-0002-1071-8644

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