The (Un)Equal Effect of Binary Socialisation on Adolescents’ Exposure to Pornography: Girls’ Empowerment and Boys’ Sexism from a New Representative National Survey

Loredana Cerbara, Giulia Ciancimino (), Gianni Corsetti and Antonio Tintori
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Loredana Cerbara: Institute for Research on Population and Social Policies, National Research Council of Italy, 00185 Rome, Italy
Giulia Ciancimino: Institute for Research on Population and Social Policies, National Research Council of Italy, 00185 Rome, Italy
Gianni Corsetti: Italian National Institute of Statistics, 00184 Rome, Italy
Antonio Tintori: Institute for Research on Population and Social Policies, National Research Council of Italy, 00185 Rome, Italy

Societies, 2023, vol. 13, issue 6, 1-15

Abstract: Due to the increasing trend in the use of pornography recorded in recent years, along with the decreasing age of its consumers, many studies have investigated its potential negative effects on adolescents, who are developing their social and sexual identity, often producing inconsistent results. With the present study, which is based on a large representative sample of Italian students attending public upper secondary schools, predictors as well as negative and positive effects of pornography use on adolescents’ attitudes, beliefs and well-being have been identified through a psychosocial approach. To achieve these results, the study involved a two-step analysis: first, the decision tree method for classification was applied to identify the main predictors of different frequencies in pornography consumption; subsequently, multinomial logistic regressions were carried out to detect the effects of pornography use. The results show a large difference between boys and girls in terms of frequency of pornography use, but also in the effects on adherence to gender roles, which is related to a still strongly stereotyped socialisation. Instead, similar negative effects on both girls and boys were found on self-esteem, body satisfaction, negative primary emotions and distress, suggesting the need for adequate sex education provided by both parents and schools to counteract taboos and blind internalisation of models of beauty and sexual behaviours provided by pornography.

Keywords: pornography; adolescence; gender roles; gender sexual roles; self-esteem; distress; body satisfaction; negative emotions; sex education; survey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 A14 P P0 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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