Sexuality and Shame

Religiosity, Developmental Context, and Sexual Shame in Pornography Users: A Serial Mediation Model

“…It is primed by such experiences because sexuality and sex are perceived as improper to discuss in American homes (Kyle, 2013;McClintock, 2001;Pinto-Gouveia & Matos, 2011) and banished from discourse (Ince, 2003;Mollon, 2005;Shadbolt, 2009). The taboo of sexuality and sex keeps sexual secrets hidden, causing secrets such as childhood sexual abuse, a prominent factor in sexual shame, to remain in the dark (Baum & Fishman, 1994;Carnes & Adams, 2013;Hastings, 1996;Laaser, 1991;Morrison & Ferris, 2009;Schwartz & Brasted, 1985).…”

“…Consequences, such as self-hostility, that come from engaging in sexual behaviors become predictors of even greater sexual shame (Reid, 2010). Sexual shame is related to numerous clinically relevant issues such as narcissism (Kinston, 1983;Schwartz, 1991), relational dysfunction (Mollon, 2005;Tangney, 2007), aggression and violence (Brown, 2004), body-shaming (Calogero & Thompson, 2009;Shadbolt, 2009), dissociation (Dubrow-Eichel, 1993Kaufman, 1985), impaired development (Schwartz, 1991), sexual dysfunction (Hastings, 1998;Shadbolt, 2009), hypersexuality and paraphilias (Dearing, Stuewig, & Tangney, 2005;Dhuffar & Griffiths, 2014;Gilliland et al, 2011;Reid et al, 2009), sexual addiction (Carnes & Adams, 2013;Laaser, 1991), and low self-esteem (Baum & Fishman, 1994;Morin, 1995;Tillotson, 1997).…”