Sexually Explicit Internet Material and Adolescents’ Sexual Performance Orientation: The Mediating Roles of Enjoyment and Perceived Utility (2018)

Title: Sexually Explicit Internet Material and Adolescents’ Sexual Performance Orientation: The Mediating Roles of Enjoyment and Perceived Utility
Authors: Vandenbosch, Laura ×
van Oosten, Johanne
Peter, Jochen #
Issue Date: 2018
Publisher: L. Erlbaum Associates
Series Title: Media Psychology
AbstractLittle is known about how exposure to sexually explicit Internet material (SEIM) relates to a performance-focused orientation toward sex. Based on a three-wave panel study among adolescents (N = 1,022), we found that watching SEIM predicted a sexual performance orientation from Wave (W) 2 to W3, but not from W1 to W2. A sexual performance orientation at W2 predicted adolescents’ exposure to SEIM at W3. The relationship between exposure to SEIM and a sexual performance orientation was explained by a two-step mediation model. The more adolescents were exposed to SEIM at W1, the more they enjoyed consuming this content at W2. In turn, enjoyment of SEIM (W2) predicted adolescents’ perceived utility of SEIM (W2). This increased perceived utility at W2 predicted a more intense performance orientation towards SEIM at W3. Within this two-step model, we also found full support for a reciprocal relationship between using SEIM (W1/W2/W3) and enjoyment of SEIM (W1/W2/W3) and partial support for a reciprocal relationship between sexual performance orientation (W2) and perceived utility of SEIM (W3).
ISSN: 1521-3269
Publication status: accepted
KU Leuven publication type: IT
Appears in Collections:Leuven School for Mass Communication Research

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