Context Matters: Moderating Effects in the Associations between Pornography Use, Perceived Addiction, and...

While perceived addiction and religiosity have been key contextual factors in understanding the link between pornography use and personal distress, these contextual factors have been explored less in the relational literature. Using a large nonprobability convenience sample from the United States, a moderated mediation model of the association between pornography use alone and two key indicators of relationship quality (relationship satisfaction and relationship stability) was explored. Results suggested that both general and aggressive pornography use alone were associated with less relationship satisfaction and relationship stability even when accounting for a range of potentially confounding variables. Perceived addiction partially mediated these associations, while both religiosity and gender moderated them. Generally, higher religiosity and being male were linked to compounding negative associations between pornography use and lower relationship quality. Findings suggest the importance of considering both religiosity and perceived addiction as important contextual factors when studying associations between pornography use and both relational and individual outcomes.