The role of functional impairment in determining problematic pornography use: A latent profile analysis

Abstract

A recent study (Bőthe et al., 2020) has examined pornography use profiles, showing that high frequency pornography viewing is not necessarily a sign of problematic use. However, to better differentiate between engaged and problematic use, functional impairment should be considered. The present study aimed to determine profiles of pornography users based on problematic pornography use (PPU) items, pornography use frequency and functional impairment associated with pornography use. An online study was conducted on Croatian (N=681, female=49.7%) and Serbian (N=971, female=51.8%) community samples. PPU was measured by the 6-item Problematic Pornography Consumption Scale (Bőthe et al., 2018), pornography frequency by one item (1=never, 7=several times per day), and functional impairment by 3 items in the following domains: school/work, social life/free-time activities and family life/housework. Latent profile analysis was used to classify pornography users. Based on fit indicators and practical usefulness, a three-profile solution was selected in both Croatian and Serbian samples. The profiles were labelled as: non-problematic average frequency pornography use (80.7%/83.5%), non-problematic above average frequency pornography use (14.9%/13.7%), and problematic above-average frequency pornography use (4.4%/2.8%). Differences between the three profiles were found in terms of gender, religiosity, attachment anxiety and avoidance, as well as depression, anxiety, and stress. Functional impairment was the key differentiator between the profiles, which has implications for understanding and assessing PPU, as well as for clinical practice.