Pornography Use and Sexual Risk Behaviors in Adolescents: A Systematic Review

Abstract

The objective of this systematic review was to determine whether there is an association between pornography use and sexual risk behaviors in adolescents. A search for scientific articles was carried out in the PsycINFO, PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science databases, obtaining a total of 706 studies. After the selection process, 20 studies were included. In general, the results of the included studies show that pornography use in adolescents is associated with sexual risk behaviors such as early sexual debut, a greater number of sexual partners, condomless sex, having sex under the influence of alcohol/drugs, among others. However, these associations should be interpreted taking into account conceptual and methodological aspects, such as the absence of conceptualization, identification and evaluation of third variables that could better explain this association; as well as the low methodological quality of the included studies, in terms of external and internal validity, making it difficult to generalize and compare the results obtained. Therefore, it is suggested the need to investigate the association between pornography use and sexual risk behaviors in adolescents, taking into account possible third variables and using representative samples, as well as valid and reliable instruments to assess pornography use.