Sexual addiction, compulsivity, and impulsivity among a predominantly female sample of adults who use the internet for sex

Abstract

Background and aims Compulsive sexual behavior is characterized by extensive sexual behavior and unsuccessful efforts to control excessive sexual behavior. The aim of the studies was to investigate compulsivity, anxiety and depression and impulsivity and problematic online sexual activities among adult males and females who use the Internet for finding sexual partners and using online pornography. Methods Study 1- 177 participants including 143 women M = 32.79 years (SD = 9.52), and 32 men M = 30.18 years (SD = 10.79). The Sexual Addiction Screening Test (SAST), the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS), Spielberger Trait-State Anxiety Inventory (STAI-T STAI-S) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Study 2- 139 participants including 98 women M = 24 years (SD = 5) and 41 men M = 25 years (SD = 4). The impulsivity questionnaire (BIS/BAS), Problematic online sexual activities (s-IAT-sex) and Sexual Addiction Screening Test (SAST). Results Study 1- Multiple regression analysis has indicated that a model which included BDI, Y-BOCS, and STAI scores contributed to the variance of sexual addiction rates, and explained 33.3% of the variance. Study 2- Multiple regression analysis indicated that BIS/BAS and s-IAT scores contributed to the variance of sexual addiction rates, and explained 33% of the variance. Discussion and conclusions Obsessive-compulsive symptoms contributed to sexual addiction among individuals who use the Internet for finding sexual partners. Impulsivity and problematic online sexual activity contributed to ratings of sex addiction. These studies support the argument that sex addiction lies on the impulsive-compulsive scale and could be classified as a behavioral addiction.

Is Compulsive Sexual Behavior Different in Women Compared to Men?

“…Another specified sample group consisted of users of geosocial networking apps (GNAs, e.g., Grinder), where more users of these apps met the HBI cut-off compared to non-users (e.g., 7.7% compared to 3.7% [ 34 ]). The gender effect of higher scores in men remained in these populations across measurements (e.g., measured with SAST [ 35 ]) and was also true for general online dating [ 36 ]. Notably, one study on individuals endorsing online dating reported no gender effect on CSB (measured with SAST) even though 35.1% of their sample showed high levels of CSB.…”

“…In an attempt to further conceptualize CSB, many studies regarding psychiatric comorbidities and psychological traits have been conducted. In the studies reviewed CSB has been reported to have correlations with perfectionism [ 45 ], paraphilias and sexual dysfunction [ 30 , 46 ], mood disorders (e.g., anxiety and depression) [ 26 , 35 , 38 , 41 , 47 , 48 ], experience of childhood sexual abuse [ 47 , 49 , 50 ], OCD [ 35 , 41 ], Autism Spectrum Disorder [ 42 ], general emotional dysregulation [ 31 ], substance abuse [ 43 , 44 ], maladaptive schemata [ 51 ], excitement seeking in general [ 45 , 52 ], compulsivity and impulsivity [ 47 , 49 , 53 ], high sexual arousal/excitation [ 25 ], higher neuroticism [ 47 ], avoidant coping mechanisms [ 54 ], high rates of psychiatric comorbidity in general [ 38 ], high distress rates and negative emotions [ 14 ], boredom [ 48 ], general childhood adversities and trauma [ 30 , 33 , 43 , 49 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 ], pathological buying [ 37 ], insecure attachment style [ 60 , 61 , 62 ] and risky sexual behavior [ 32 ] in both genders.…”

“…Another focus of past research was psychiatric comorbidity with 10 studies reporting gender effects on some psychiatric correlates, such as depression [ 23 , 28 , 35 ], anxiety [ 28 , 35 ], OCD [ 35 , 41 ], Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) [ 42 ], ADHD symptoms [ 64 ], sexual dysfunction [ 30 , 46 ] and general stress proneness [ 15 , 65 ].…”

Uso problemático del smartphone: el papel de los Cinco Grandes, la Tríada Oscura y la impulsividad

“…Este resultado está en línea con la literatura previa sobre el tema (Grant et al, 2019;Jo et al, 2018;Kim et al, 2016;Peterka-Bonetta et al, 2019;Wu et al, 2013). Además, este resultado era esperable, ya que la impulsividad se ha relacionado con numerosas adicciones, incluida la adicción a la cocaína (García-Marchena et al, 2018), al alcohol (Shin et al, 2012), a la comida (VanderBroek-Stice et al, 2017), al tabaco (Liu et al, 2019), al sexo (Levi et al, 2020), etc.…”

“…Por su parte, la impulsividad se puede definir como una tendencia a actuar rápidamente, antes de procesar completamente la información disponible y sin considerar adecuadamente las consecuencias a largo plazo (Moeller et al, 2001). La capacidad de controlar nuestros impulsos se ha mostrado fundamental en múltiples 2021, 39(1) facetas tanto sociales como individuales, y su ausencia se asocia tanto a adicciones relacionadas con sustancias (Jakubczyk et al, 2018;Liu et al, 2019;Thomsen et al, 2018;Willhelm et al, 2020) como al uso problemático de Facebook (Cudo et al, 2020), Internet (Levi et al, 2020;Li et al, 2019;Liu et al, 2019), o el smartphone (Grant et al, 2019;Kim et al, 2016;Peterka-Bonetta et al, 2019).…”