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Pornography, Religion, and Parent–Child Relationship Quality

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Abstract

Frequent pornography use is often negatively associated with marital quality. Recent research has argued that this negative association is particularly strong for those who are embedded in religious communities, likely due to the greater stigma and shame associated with viewing pornography. In order to test and extend this theory, the current study examined how religious service attendance moderates the link between parents’ pornography consumption and four measures of parent–child relationship quality. Analyses of 2006 Portraits of American Life Study data (N = 2610) revealed that greater pornography viewing predicted negative outcomes on two out of four measures of parent–child relationship quality, while religious service attendance was associated with more positive parent–child relationship outcomes. Interaction effects, however, affirmed that the negative association between porn viewing frequency and three parent–child relationship outcomes was stronger for participants who attended religious services more often. Analyzing fathers (N = 771) and mothers (N = 904) separately revealed that the observed relationships held more consistently for fathers than mothers. Evidence for directionality was presented by incorporating re-interview data from 2012. While pornography use may be negatively associated with some aspects of parent–child relationship quality, this association was particularly strong for those embedded within religious communities, possibly owing to greater attendant guilt and shame.

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Notes

  1. The two variables about having children either in or out of the home are not mutually exclusive. Though several of the outcomes like eating at the same table with one’s children or yelling at one’s children would primarily take place when children are in the home, and less so when children are out of the home, we include them both in order to account for parents who are either in blended families (with younger and older children) or have simply been parents longer. Supplementary analyses alternated including either variable across all models to test for whether including both variables made any difference in the substantive findings. No significant differences were detected.

  2. Full results are available upon request from the corresponding author.

  3. Descriptive statistics from the 2012 PALS data are available upon request from the corresponding author.

  4. The only significant difference in the measures from Table 3 and the analyses with 2012 PALS data are that the 2006 PALS data asked participants whether they had children in the home and whether they had children out of the home. Wave 2 of PALS only asked participants how many children they had, so this was the only control about children included.

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Funding

This study did not receive any direct funding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Oklahoma, 780 Van Vleet Oval, Kaufman Hall 335A, Norman, OK, 73019, USA

    Samuel L. Perry & Kara J. Snawder

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  1. Samuel L. Perry
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  2. Kara J. Snawder
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Correspondence to Samuel L. Perry.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants by any of the authors. Secondary data are used.

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Perry, S.L., Snawder, K.J. Pornography, Religion, and Parent–Child Relationship Quality. Arch Sex Behav 46, 1747–1761 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-016-0927-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-016-0927-8

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