Motives for pornography use and women's sexual wellbeing: Insights from a 42-country study

Gewirtz-Meydan, Ateret and Feder, Hagit and Nagy, Léna and Koós, Mónika and Kraus, Shane W. and Demetrovics, Zsolt and Potenza, Marc N. and Ballester-Arnal, Rafael and Batthyány, Dominik and Bergeron, Sophie and Billieux, Joël and Briken, Peer and Burkauskas, Julius and Cárdenas-López, Georgina and Carvalho, Joana and Castro-Calvo, Jesús and Chen, Lijun and Ciocca, Giacomo and Corazza, Ornella and Csako, Rita I. and Fernandez, David P. and Fernandez, Elaine F. and Fujiwara, Hironobu and Fuss, Johannes and Gabrhelík, Roman and Gjoneska, Biljana and Gola, Mateusz and Grubbs, Joshua B. and Hashim, Hashim T. and Islam, Md. Saiful and Ismail, Mustafa and Jiménez-Martínez, Martha C. and Jurin, Tanja and Kalina, Ondrej and Klein, Verena and Költő, András and Lee, Chih-Ting and Lee, Sang-Kyu and Lewczuk, Karol and Lin, Chung-Ying and Lochner, Christine and López-Alvarado, Silvia and Lukavská, Kateřina and Mayta-Tristán, Percy and Miller, Dan J. and Orosová, Oľga and Orosz, Gábor and Sungkyunkwan University’s research team, and Ponce, Fernando P. and Quintana, Gonzalo R. and Quintero Garzola, Gabriel C. and Ramos-Diaz, Jano and Rigaud, Kévin and Rousseau, Ann and De Tubino Scanavino, Marco and Schulmeyer, Marion K. and Sharan, Pratap and Shibata, Mami and Shoib, Sheikh and Sigre-Leirós, Vera and Sniewski, Luke and Spasovski, Ognen and Steibliene, Vesta and Stein, Dan J. and Strizek, Julian and Štulhofer, Aleksandar and Ünsal, Berk C. and Vaillancourt-Morel, Marie-Pier and Van Hout, Marie Claire and Bőthe, Beáta (2025) Motives for pornography use and women's sexual wellbeing: Insights from a 42-country study. JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL ADDICTIONS, 14 (1). pp. 114-130. ISSN 2062-5871 (print); 2063-5303 (online)

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Abstract

Background and aims Despite a growing body of research on pornography use among women, there is a lack of understanding of the problematic versus non-problematic nature. The current study aimed to investigate the relationship between women's motivations for pornography use and sexual wellbeing using a cross-sectional, self-report survey design among participants from 42 countries. Methods The total sample included 82,243 participants, of whom 46,874 (57.0%) identified as women and were analyzed. The participants' age averaged at M = 29.67 years, with a standard deviation of SD = 10.11. Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire assessing their motivations for pornography use, as well as measures of sexual functioning, sexual desire, and sexual satisfaction. Results Study results suggest that across cultures, women's motivations for pornography use are associated with their sexual wellbeing. Specifically, when women reported using pornography for their own pleasure or sexual curiosity, it was associated with fewer sexual functioning problems and higher sexual desire. Conversely, when women reported using pornography due to a lack of sexual satisfaction in their relationships, it was associated with more sexual functioning problems. Discussion and conclusions These findings highlight the need to consider the multifaceted nature of pornography use among women, including the usage motives, to fully understand associations with sexual wellbeing. Additionally, the study emphasizes the importance of conducting further research utilizing longitudinal designs, to establish the directionality between pornography use motivations and sexual wellbeing among women.

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