Religious and Community Hurdles to Pornography Consumption: A National Study of Emerging Adults

Research demonstrates that attending religious services is associated with lower pornography consumption in emerging adults but is less clear on associations between pornography consumption and additional religious and communal factors. This research presents an innovative approach to this question by using a "hurdle" model to separately examine prevalence and frequency of pornography consumption in a national sample of emerging adults. Analyses show that both private religious activities and community volunteering are associated with lower prevalence of consumption, but only in the context of regular attendance at religious services. Neither factor is associated with the frequency of consumption. Further, these associations are robust to controls for bias due to prior pornography consumption. Initiating and accelerating pornography consumption constitute distinct processes, and research on emerging adults should consider separate influences on each. Further, attendance at religious services forms a crucial context for the efficacy of additional religious and communal factors in deterring consumption.