Sexually Explicit Internet Material and Adolescents’ Sexual Uncertainty: The Role of Disposition-Content Congruency

Abstract

Previous research has suggested that adolescents’ exposure to sexually explicit internet material (SEIM) may result in sexual uncertainty because the content of SEIM may conflict with what adolescents have learned about sex. However, research on which type of adolescent is most susceptible to the relation between SEIM use and sexual uncertainty is lacking. This study therefore investigated whether the relationship between SEIM use and sexual uncertainty depends on within-gender differences in sexual dispositions (i.e., impersonal sex orientation and hypergendered orientation). Using data from a representative two-wave panel survey among 1765 Dutch adolescents (aged 13–17), I found that SEIM use predicted sexual uncertainty only among girls with a low hypergendered orientation and girls with a relatively high impersonal sex orientation.

Gender roles on social networking sites: investigating reciprocal relationships between Dutch adolescents’ hypermasculinity and hyperfemininity and sexy online self-presentations

“…There is reason to believe that research on hypergender orientations among adults may extend to adolescents. For instance, one study showed that adolescent girls' responses to sexually explicit internet material depended on their hypergender orientation (van Oosten, 2016), similar to young adult men (e.g., Kingston, Malamuth, Fedoroff, & Marshall, 2009) and women (e.g., van Oosten et al, 2015b). In addition, an increased hypergender orientation predicts adolescent girls' initiation of the use of sexually explicit internet material (Vandenbosch & Peter, 2016), and both adolescent boys' and girls' selection of certain types of sexually explicit material (i.e., violent pornography, Vandenbosch, 2015).…”

“…As done in previous operationalization of hypergender orientation (e.g., Kreiger & Dumka, 2006;van Oosten, 2016;Vandenbosch, 2015), the Hyper Femininity Scale of Murnen and Byrne (1991) and the Hyper Masculinity Index of Mosher and Sirkin (1984) were used to measure a hypergender orientation. Six items were selected from each scale (because of space constrains) based on the results of the highest corrected item-total correlations in a pilot study that was conducted among 103 undergraduate students (77 women).…”

Surveying Pornography Use: A Shaky Science Resting on Poor Measurement Foundations

“…They are noteworthy because they appeared to be founded on a set of items that have been the focus of some validation efforts, but in each case, adaptations were made without clear justification. All six of these studies (Peter & Valkenburg, 2009, 2011bVandenbosch & van Oosten, 2017;van Oosten, 2016;Vogels, 2018;Vogels & O'Sullivan, 2019), for example, used only four of the original five items proposed by Peter and Valkenburg (2006), with no mention of why the fifth item (i.e., the use of "erotic contact sites", p. 186), with which the scale validity was originally supported, was excluded. Further, the original scale asked about pornography use over the past six months, but three of these studies used either a two month or a four month assessment window.…”

Explaining the Relationship Between Sexually Explicit Internet Material and Casual Sex: A Two-Step Mediation Model

“…As these attitudes are important antecedents of sexual behavior (Lonsway & Fitzgerald, 1994), two-step mediation models that include sexual arousal may be a promising direction for future research. Such research should take account of reciprocal relationships as sexual arousal derived from SEIM use and more general adolescents' sexual interest are expected to drive SEIM use (Peter & Valkenburg, 2008, 2016.…”

“…health interventions, we need to pay more attention to the processes that may underlie the effects of SEIM on adolescent sexuality (e.g., Peter & Valkenburg, 2010, 2016To, Ngai, & Iu Kan, 2012;Wright, 2011). Despite some first attempts to explain the influence of watching SEIM on adolescents' sexuality (e.g., Peter & Valkenburg, 2008, 2009aTo et al, 2012), we still lack knowledge about why SEIM use may change adolescents' sexual behavior (Peter & Valkenburg, 2016) and may motivate them, in particular, to engage in casual sex.…”