Pornography Use and Adolescent Sexual Self-Concept: The Role of Pornography-Related Expectancies and Generalizations

While researchers have emphasized the need to investigate pornography use in relation to normative or positive aspects of adolescent sexuality and understand differential susceptibility among users, empirical studies remain sparse. In response, this study investigated the link between pornography use and adolescents' sexual self-concept (i.e., sexual self-esteem, body-esteem, sexual anxiety, and self-efficacy). Specifically, it compared the sexual self-concept of adolescents who had used pornography with those who had not, while also examining how frequency of use, pornography-related sexual expectancies, and generalizations were linked to sexual self-concept in a subset of users. A sample of 1584 Canadian adolescents (49.3% cisgender girls; Mage = 15.53 years) completed self-report questionnaires about their sexual functioning. Significant differences in sexual self-concept were found between adolescents who had and had not used pornography, with gender-specific effects. Among those who had used pornography, higher pornography-related sexual expectancies were associated with higher sexual anxiety and lower body-esteem, while higher generalizations were associated with lower sexual self-efficacy. The findings emphasized the importance of incorporating positive and normative aspects of sexuality into adolescent pornography research while considering individual- and pornography use-related factors that could be linked to targeted outcomes.