Psychology & Sexuality Vol. 3, No.

2, May 2012, 95107

Adolescent exposure to pornography and relationship intimacy in young adulthood

Aleksandar tulhofera , Vesna Bukob and Gunter Schmidtc
Department of Sociology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia; b Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia; c Institute of Sex Research and Forensic Psychiatry, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany (Received 16 July 2010; nal version received 11 November 2010)
a

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The hypothesis on the role of exposure to pornography during adolescence in predicting intimacy among young adults was tested using a sample of 544 Croatian college students (aged 1825 years) who were surveyed online. Respondents provided information about pornography use at ages 14 and 17, perceived realism of pornographic depictions of sexual activities, attitudes towards recreational sex and relationship intimacy. Signicant gender differences in pornography exposure, perceived realism of pornographic contents and attitudes towards recreational sex were found. No direct relationship was found between adolescent exposure to pornography and relationship intimacy in young adulthood. As hypothesised, the realism of pornography was related both to exposure and intimacy, but only among female participants. Furthermore, the association between the appraisal of pornographic realism and intimacy was shown to be mediated by attitudes towards recreational sex. In light of contemporary concerns over the normalisation of pornography use, particularly among young people, our ndings do not support the view that adolescent exposure to sexually explicit materials is a determinant of relationship intimacy among young Croatian adults. Keywords: pornography; pornographic realism; attitudes towards recreational sex; intimacy; young adults; gender

Introduction It has been argued that the digital era is characterised by an unprecedented availability of pornographic material (Cooper & Grifn-Shelley, 2002; Cooper, McLoughlin, & Campbell, 2000; Fisher & Barak, 2001). The rapidly growing popularity of Internet-based pornography is often accompanied not only by moralistic condemnation (Paul, 2005), but also by subcultural glamorisation of pornography (McNair, 2002), especially, it seems, among young people. For many teenagers and young adults pornography has become cool (Attwood, 2005; Flood, 2007). Behavioural scientists renewed interest in studying the potential effects of pornography use not only negative reects this new social relevance of sexually explicit contents (Attwood, 2002). Especially in the United States, a strong concern over early exposure to

Corresponding author. Email: astulhof@ffzg.hr

ISSN 1941-9899 print/ISSN 1941-9902 online 2012 Taylor & Francis http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19419899.2010.537367 http://www.tandfonline.com

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pornography, sought after or not (Wolak, Mitchell, & Finkelhor, 2007; Ybarra & Mitchell, 2005), emerged, linking the exposure to a number of adverse effects, such as the development of sexual callousness and adherence to sexist notions of sex and relationships, as well as to attitudes supportive of sexual coercion (cf. Flood, 2009; Zillmann, 2000). In a programmatic paper published in a journal dedicated to adolescent health, Dolf Zillmann argued that frequent exposure to highly sexualised contents among adolescents and young adults produces changes in attitudes about sex and intimacy (Zillmann, 2000). According to Zillmann, prolonged exposure leads to habituation of excitatory reactions, which encourages viewers to seek out erotica depicting less common sexual behaviors (Zillmann, 2000, p. 41). Such consumption dynamics lead to dispositional changes that include diminished trust in intimate partners, the abandonment of hopes for sexual exclusivity with partners, evaluation of promiscuity as the natural state, and the apprehension that sexual exclusivity constitutes a health risk (Zillmann, 2000, p. 41). In this narrative, prolonged use of erotica serves as a specic sexual socialisation, at the core of which are cynical attitudes about love and a belief that superior sexual pleasures are . . . attainable without affection toward partners (Zillmann, 2000, p. 42). In 2006, a retrospective study on the effects of pornography use among young Croatian adults was initiated. In a couple of papers published from the study, effects of pornography use on intimacy and sexual satisfaction were analysed (tulhofer, Ajdukovi , Boi evi , c c c & Kufrin, 2007; tulhofer, Buko, & Landripet, 2010). We argued against focusing on the direct impact of pornography as too simplistic (unrealistic) an approach. Instead, we suggested that the effects of exposure to sexually explicit materials might be mediated by sexual socialisation. Following Simon and Gagnons scripting theory (Simon & Gagnon, 1999, 2003), sexual socialisation was dened as a social learning process shaped by intrapersonal, interpersonal and socio-cultural inuences that denes ones sexual reality and guides sexual decision-making. In the rst of the two papers, the mediating effect of sexual socialisation received some support, but only among male participants (tulhofer et al., 2007). In the second paper, the effect was supported only among men who were using non-mainstream, paraphilic pornographic materials at the time of the survey (tulhofer et al., 2010). It remains unclear, however, whether the effect was due to the exposure to specic contents or to particular sexual interests which determine pornographic preferences and create partnership problems. Another recent study focused on the relationship between exposure to Internet pornography and attitudes towards recreational sex in a sample of Dutch adolescents (Peter & Valkenburg, 2006). Its ndings pointed to a moderating effect of gender and a mediating effect of the perceived realism of pornographic materials. As summarised by the authors: Male adolescents used sexually explicit online material more often than female adolescents. This increased exposure was associated with higher perceived realism of such material, which in turn was related to more recreational attitudes toward sex (Peter & Valkenburg, 2006, pp. 653654). Building on the Peter and Valkenburg approach, the aim of this study was to test the association between the use of pornography at ages 1417 and perception of its realism, on the one hand, and relationship intimacy on the other. The relationship, it was hypothesised, would be mediated by the acceptance of recreational sex. Although our study is not a test of Zillmanns hypothesis for at least two reasons1 our focus on the association between exposure to sexually explicit materials and the ability to form an intimate relationship may shed some light on the claim that sustained exposure to sexualised materials leads to the deterioration of emotional attachment and commitment (Zillmann, 2000, p. 42).

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The proposed association was assessed by modelling the relationship between retrospectively assessed hardcore pornography use at the ages of 14 and 17 and intimacy levels reported in young adulthood. Our model explored the following four research questions: (1) is the exposure to pornography in adolescence associated with perceived pornography realism; (2) are the exposure to pornography and appraisal of its realism (in)directly related to relationship intimacy achieved in young adulthood; (3) are attitudes towards recreational (intimacy-free) sex a mediator between the above constructs; and, nally, (4) are the associations stated above gender-specic? Methods In 2007, we collected a new round of data on the use of pornography among young adults using a previously validated and appended online questionnaire (tulhofer, Schmidt, & Landripet, 2009). Of 1318 Croatian students who visited the questionnaire Web page, 1181 started (89.6% response rate) and 738 completed the questionnaire (62.5% completion rate). After excluding participants of ineligible age (under 18 and over 25; the latter were excluded to reduce memory bias), those who did not provide information about their age or sex, those who reported not using pornography at any of the time points assessed (the study was advertised as focusing on personal experiences with sexually explicit materials) and those whose answers contained over 10% of missing values, the sample was reduced to 544. Participants mean age was 21.3 years (SD = 1.66). Women constituted a majority in the sample (66%). The online questionnaire about personal experiences with pornography consisted of 234 items and required about 30 minutes to complete. The respondents provided socio-demographic data and answered questions about their attitudes towards sex, their experience with and attitudes towards pornography and sexual behaviour. Pornography was dened as any kind of material aimed at creating or enhancing sexual arousal, sexual feelings, thoughts or fantasies, which explicitly (e.g. in an uncensored manner) shows or describes genitals during various, mostly penetrative, sexual activities. Materials that contain men or women posing nude such as those seen in Playgirl/Playboy should not be considered when completing this questionnaire. The rationale for such denition was the already mentioned increase in availability and popularity of (mainly the Webbased) sexually explicit imagery among young people (Cooper & Grifn-Shelley, 2002; Cooper et al., 2000), relative to other forms of sexually laden contents, which directed our research interests towards potential effects of (hardcore) pornography on young peoples sexual socialisation. Data collection In late 2007, a generic e-mail message was sent to college students mailing lists at several Croatian universities. It contained a brief explanation of the research study (clearly stating its focus on personal experiences with pornography use), the link to the online questionnaire and a request that recipients forward the message to their peers. On the rst screen, a prospective participant was asked to conrm his/her consent to participate in a study on condom use before proceeding to the rst question. Questionnaire application was hosted on a commercial site in the United States dedicated to online survey research tools. To ensure anonymity, IP addresses were not permanently recorded. No incentives were offered for participation in this study. Data collection was completed during November and December 2007. The study was approved by the Ethical Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb.

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Measures The use of pornography at ages 1417 was assessed retrospectively using two 5-point scales (from 1 = every day to 5 = never) assessing the frequency of exposure to sexually explicit materials at the ages of 14 and 17. Frequency of the use of sexually explicit materials at the two time points was highly and signicantly correlated (rS = .78, p < .001). Responses on the two items were recorded so that higher scores denoted more frequent exposure. Perceived realism of pornography, the construct measuring the extent to which one believes that pornography depicts sex realistically (i.e. that pornography imitates life) was assessed with four items such as Sex on the Internet is similar to sex in real life and You can learn a lot about sex by watching sex pictures or sex movies on the Internet. Participants indicated the degree to which participants nd pornography a realistic depiction of sex (Peter & Valkenburg, 2006). Response options ranged from 1 = fully disagree to 5 = fully agree, with higher scores denoting higher levels of perceived realism of pornography. When all indicators of attitudes and beliefs towards sex and/or pornography were entered in principal component analysis, all four items loaded highly (>.74) on a component with eigenvalue of 2.58, which explained 56.3% of item variance. The composite scores (Cronbachs = .78) ranged from 4 to 20. Attitude towards recreational sex was measured by four items (e.g. Sex is primarily something physical; My goal in sex is to have a good time). The measure is a shortened version of the 6-item scale developed by Peter and Valkenburg (2006). All items had a 5-point Likert-type format: 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. The scale ranged from 4 to 20 and had Cronbachs alpha coefcient of .68. Higher scores were indicative of stronger personal acceptance of recreational sex. As was the case with the construct presented above, when all indicators of relevant attitudes and beliefs were entered in principal component analysis, all four items of the scale loaded well (>.58) on a component with eigenvalue of 1.82 explaining 59.1% of item variance. The degree of intimacy in current relationship (or, if participant reported currently not being in relationship, in your most recent relationship) was assessed by six items based on the Miller Social Intimacy Scale (Miller & Lefcourt, 1982). The items measured the degree to which one feels close to a partner, a readiness to help ones partner when he/she has problems or feels low, the need to open up emotionally to a partner, etc. Responses were anchored on a 5-point scale (1 = almost never, 5 = almost always). The composite scale had acceptable reliability (Cronbachs = .76); higher scores denoted higher levels of intimacy. Statistical analyses Gender differences in pornography use, the perceived realism of pornography, attitudes towards recreational sex and relationship intimacy were tested by linear discriminant analysis. The study hypotheses were examined within structural equation modelling framework using LISREL 8.7 (Jreskog & Srbom, 1996). Following the hypothesised relationships among the constructs of interest, the structural equation model was specied including four latent variables (see Figure 2). Three indicator variables were used to measure relationship intimacy, whereas the remaining three latent variables were measured by two indicators each. The latent variable pornography use was assessed with the two previously described one-item indicators, whereas the indicators of the other three constructs were composed as scale parcels, that is simple linear combinations of randomly chosen pairs of items from a respective scale. The reason for using scale parcels to dene observed data was

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simple: two-item scales have a more favourable metric quality than single-item scales. The analyses were based on covariance matrices of the nine indicator variables. Due to metric and distributional properties of the observed indicators used which resulted in observable departures from multivariate normality, asymptotic covariance matrix was computed with the diagonally weighted least squares used as an estimation method.

Results The mean age of sexual debut in the sample was 17.5 (SD = 2.11; Median = 17) with little difference between the genders (M female = 15.51, SD = 1.83 and M male = 17.45, SD = 2.44). The median of three lifetime sexual partners was observed; on average, women reported 4.3 (SD = 3.50) and men 5.31 (SD = 3.95) partners. The median number of sexual partners in the past 12 months was 1 for both male and female students. A majority of participants reported currently being in a relationship (69.3%). Less than a half of the surveyed men and women (42.8%) stated that God is important in their life. Compared to the ndings from a recent large-scale national study of young adults sexual attitudes and behaviours (Landripet, tulhofer, & Ba ak, submitted), little differences in basic socioc sexual indicators were observed. A majority of participants (62%) were in a relationship at the time of the survey. The mean age at rst intercourse was 17.1 (SD = 1.75). Identical to our study, the median of three lifetime and one sexual partner in the past 12 months was reported. A notable difference, however, was found in the prevalence of exclusively heterosexual activity. In the 2010 national probability sample, the percentage was substantially higher (93.3%) than in our Internet sample (81.7%). The importance of God was reported by 44.9% of participants. To test for the frequently observed gender differences in pornography exposure and its assessment, discriminant analysis was carried out on the variables of interest (not presented in tables). The main descriptive statistics of the study variables along with the tests of univariate group differences is shown in Table 1. The discriminant analysis revealed highly signicant gender differences and sizeable intergroup variability (Wilks = .40, 2 = 476, df = 4, p < .001; = 1.48, rc = .77). According to the structure matrix data and discriminant function coefcients, exposure to pornography accounted for most of the observed gender differences. The discriminant function was highly correlated with pornography exposure at ages 14 and 17 (.70 and .94) and only weakly related to other variables
Table 1. Patterns of pornography use and other variables of interest in male (N = 185) and female (N = 359) subsamples. M Pornography exposure at 14 Pornography exposure at 17 Pornographic realism Attitudes towards recreational sex Relationship intimacy Women Men Women Men Women Men Women Men Women Men 1.36 3.22 1.68 3.94 8.68 9.37 11.01 12.33 24.05 23.13 SD .70 1.26 .81 .92 3.02 3.00 3.17 3.00 2.22 2.33 Range 15 15 15 15 4 20 4 18 4 20 4 20 15 30 12 30 F 366.49 666.94 6.12 20.92 18.88

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Note: F-test of univariate gender differences; p < .05; p < .001.

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.41 .07 .771 Porn use .96

.22**

.02 .39

.971 Porn realism .79 .13

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.24***

.14*

.42

.761 Recreational sex attitudes .15**

.56

.66

.35***

.55 .66 .56 .26

.671 Relationship intimacy .86

Figure 1. Measurement model of exposure to pornography, pornographic realism, attitudes towards recreational sex and relationship intimacy (female participants only); standardised path coefcients. Note: 2 = 32.61, df = 23, p = .09, RMSEA = .035, p < .05, p < .01, p < .001. 1 Parameter estimates xed to 1 (to scale the variances of latent variables).

(.16). Taking into account possible moderating effect of gender on associations among the key constructs, structural equation analyses were carried out separately for men and women. Measurement models of the four latent variables were tested by gender using covariance matrices computed on nine indicator variables (Figure 1). The results of conrmatory factor analysis are presented in Table 2. The multi-group conrmatory factor analysis model showed good t to the empirical data ( 2 = 32.61, df = 23, p = .09, RMSEA = .035).

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Table 2. Associations among the latent variables included in the structural models by gender: exposure to pornography (PORN), perceived realism of pornography (REAL), attitudes towards recreational sex (ATTD) and intimacy (INTM).a PORN PORN REAL ATTD INTM 1 .08 .13 .08 REAL .22 1 .17 .15 ATTD .13 .24 1 .23 INTM .14 .15 .35 1

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Note: a Associations in the female subsample (N = 359) are shown above the main diagonal whereas those in the male subsample (N = 185) are below it; p < .05; p < .01; p < .001.

In contrast to the female model, in which the four latent variables were found to be significantly interrelated in all but one case (the only exception was insignicant association between pornography use and attitudes towards recreational sex), the male subsample yielded no signicant associations (Table 2). Thus, the conceptually proposed pathways among the variables of interest were tested only among women. Following our previous work (tulhofer et al., 2007, 2009, 2010) and the model presented by Peter and Valkenburg (2006), we hypothesised an indirect association between adolescent exposure to pornography and relationship intimacy in young adulthood. Two structural models were tested and compared. In the full mediational model, the perceived realism of pornographic depiction of sex was expected to covary with pornography exposure (i.e. the more realistic one nds sexually explicit imagery, the more likely its future use, and vice versa), whereas the acceptance of recreational sex was hypothesised as a mediator between pornography exposure and intimacy. In addition to the paths dening the rst model, the second model included direct links between exposure to pornography and the perception that pornographic depictions of sex are realistic, on the one hand, and intimacy on the other (Figure 2; the additional paths in the extended model are represented by dotted lines). As the two models were nested, a direct comparison was possible. Both models were characterised by excellent t (the initial model: 2 = 35.38, df = 25, p = .08, AGFI = .99, CFI = .99, RMSEA = .034; the extended model: 2 = 32.61, df = 23, p = .09, RMSEA = .035). As the added direct paths proved insignicant and the comparison test for the nested models comparison test (Byrne, 2001, p. 261) found no improvement in model t for the extended over the initial model ( 2 = 2.77, df = 2, p > .05), the more parsimonious model was retained as the more robust one. The ndings conrmed the expected covariation between pornography exposure and the assessment of pornographic realism. Both constructs were signicantly associated with
Exposure to pornography Acceptance of recreational sex Relationship intimacy

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Pornographic realism

Figure 2. Conceptual model of the relationship between adolescent exposure to pornography and relationship intimacy in young adulthood.

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.41 .07

.45 .771 .96 Exposure to pornography .13* .23** .24** Pornographic realism
.991

.57

.84

.741

.65

.91

Acceptance of recreational sex

.40***

Relationship intimacy .671 .66

.85

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.77

.55

.56

.27

.02

.41

Figure 3. The empirical model of pornography use at the ages of 14 and 17 and current levels of relationship intimacy among young women; standardised path coefcients. Note: 2 = 35.38, df = 25, p = .08, RMSEA = .034, p < .05, p < .01, p < .001; 1 Parameter estimates xed to 1 (to scale the variances of latent variables).

the acceptance of recreational sex, which in turn was moderately and negatively correlated with relationship intimacy. Overall, the model explained 9% of variance in the acceptance of recreational sex and 16% of variance in relationship intimacy reported by young women (cf. Figure 3). As the validity of the relationship intimacy assessment among participants who reported not being in a relationship was unclear (participants who were in a relationship scored signicantly higher on the intimacy scale than those who reported not being in a relationship (t = 5.95, df = 589, p < .001)), we repeated the analyses including only women who reported being in a relationship at the time of the survey (n = 258). Again, no signicant difference in the model t between the extended and more parsimonious models was found ( 2 = 1.58, df = 2, p > .05). Structural associations in the reduced sample, as well as the model t ( 2 = 18.28, df = 24, p = .79, RMSEA = .00), were similar to those obtained on all female participants. Discussion In 2005, a nationally representative survey found that 81% of Croatian men and 74% of women aged 1824 have some experience with sexually explicit materials (tulhofer et al., 2006). The average age at rst exposure to (visual) sexually explicit materials was 11.6 for men and 13.1 for women. A growing exposure to primarily Web-based hardcore pornography among young people prompted the question about its potential effect on the process of sexual socialisation, which became the centre of our research agenda. The conceptual model presented in this article assumed a positive association between the use of pornography and how realistic one nds the pornographic depiction of sex.

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We hypothesised that the more realistic pornographic imagery is perceived, the more relevant pornographic imagination becomes for ones real-life sexuality. As pornography is primarily focused on the seemingly limitless pursuit of pleasure, which is portrayed as primarily physical activity between self-absorbed casual (uncommitted) partners (cf. Brosius, Weaver, & Staab, 1993; Stoller & Levine, 1993), this may lead to an increased acceptance of recreational sex (Lam & Chan, 2007; Peter & Valkenburg, 2006). Substantial exposure to pornography during adolescent years may generate and/or strengthen beliefs that people have sex solely for pleasure and that such emotionally detached sexual behaviour is ubiquitous and, therefore, socially desirable (Zillmann, 2000). Associations between the main constructs As hypothesised, we found some empirical support for the hypothesised links between the use of pornography and the perception of pornographic realism, as well as between these two constructs and the attitudes towards recreational sex, but only among female participants. As hypothesised, the acceptance of recreational sex mediated the association between exposure to pornography and the perception of its realism, on the one hand, and relationship intimacy on the other. The nding that the acceptance of recreational sex was associated somewhat more strongly with the appraisal of pornographic realism ( = .23, p < .001) than with the actual use of explicit sexual materials ( = .13, p < .001) hints at the need for research centred on how people interpret pornographic imagery and indicates the importance of including a media literacy module in school-based sex education programmes (cf. Zurbriggen et al., 2007). The role of gender The systematic gender differences in pornography exposure and use found in our sample corroborate ndings from other recent studies (tulhofer et al., 2007; Hald & Malamuth, 2008; Hald, 2006; Malamuth, 2001; Peter & Valkenburg, 2006; Traen, Sorheim Nilsen, & Stigum, 2006). According to our ndings, men used pornography signicantly more often during adolescence than women and were more likely to evaluate explicit sexual materials as realistic. In addition, male participants had more positive attitudes towards recreational sex than female participants. Surprisingly, associations between these variables, assumed by our conceptual model, were not signicant in the male subsample. The nding cannot be attributed to differences in the distributions of the key variables by gender. As shown in Table 1, the distributions are of comparable variability in the female and male subsamples, with the exposure variable having even somewhat larger variance among men. The smaller size of the sample of men, and the attendant reduction in statistical power, would seem to offer a more plausible explanation. As some of the coefcients for the two subsamples presented in Table 2 are comparable in absolute values, the differences in the degrees of freedom seem to provide at least a part of the answer for the unexpected ndings. Pornography and social harm Overall, our ndings do not support widespread fears regarding the damaging inuence of pornography on young peoples lives. The pornography measures explained only 9% of variance in the acceptance of recreational sex, the strongest predictor of relationship intimacy. Insignicant direct paths between pornography use and intimacy ( = .08, n.s.), as well as between the assessment of pornographic realism and intimacy ( = .05, n.s.),

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obtained by testing the less parsimonious structural model (cf. Figure 2) conrm that the bulk of the explained variance in intimacy reects reported attitudes towards recreational sex. Such attitudes, in turn, appear to be only marginally related to pornography use and assessments of its realism. When coupled with the present results, the considerable body of research on the inuence of mass media on young peoples sexuality (L Engle, Brown, & Kenneavy, 2006; Ward, 2003; Zurbriggen et al., 2007) suggests that attitudes towards recreational sex are inuenced by the popular media representations of sexuality and broader cultural processes (cf. porno-chic; McNair, 2002) more substantially than by sexually explicit imagery. These phenomena may be especially inuential among young women who, in comparison to men, are less-frequent consumers of pornography (Hald, 2006; Peter & Valkenburg, 2006; Traen et al., 2006). There are at least two possible explanations for the lack of substantial association between pornography and intimacy in our study. The rst is indicated by Neil Malamuths conuence model (Malamuth & Huppin, 2005), which proposes that certain personal characteristics may determine the choice of pornographic contents and, to a large degree, their impact on sexual behaviour. Such rejection of the blank slate assumption helps to explain why some young people seem to have problems related to their pornography consumption, whereas most are not substantially affected by it. The model suggests that the pre-pubertal formation of love maps (Money, 1986) or early sexual scripting, that occurs at puberty (Simon, 1996), provides a better explanation for specic sexual behaviours and attitudes (as well as for a specic taste in pornography) than the use of pornography. The second tentative explanation follows from ideas John Gagnon put forward in an interview with one of the authors (Gagnon & Schmidt, 1998; see also Gagnon, 2004). In emphasising the relative independence of imagined and real sex lives, Gagnon pointed out that the relative (intrapsychic) freedom contained in sexual fantasies motivates people to continue to experience it alongside, and often largely separately, from interpersonal sexual conduct, which is inevitably socially and culturally constrained. In that respect, it should be expected that a pornographic script, regardless of whether young people perceive it to be realistic or not, would tend to be left to navigate a part of the fantasy world rather than to guide ones sexual encounters. It should be noted here that this separation between the fantasy and the real sexual lives is not necessarily related to norm-oriented behaviour (e.g. internalisation of social norms that stigmatise pornography use). More likely, it is an expression of sexual agency, the outcome of the process of social learning, in which one realises that dyadic sex can never be as easily manipulated (nor always felt as desired) as sexual fantasies. Study limitations Several methodological limitations need to be mentioned. The retrospective character of the study inevitably introduced recall bias, which could have affected information on the frequency of pornography use in adolescence. The way that we advertised the study was probably responsible for the lack of male participants with little or no experience with pornography, which resulted in reduced variability in the key variables and restricted generalisability of the ndings. For example, our study did not allow a comparison to be made of the level of acceptance of recreational sex of those who were exposed to pornography during adolescence and those who were not exposed to it. A similar limitation applies to the descriptive data on relationship intimacy as the main outcome variable. The ndings are generalisable to the extent that the similar pattern of intercorrelations would be found on samples with notably lower group averages and with larger variability in relationship

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intimacy. Furthermore, as online surveying is usually associated with self-selection bias, it is highly likely that sexually open and liberal individuals are overrepresented in our sample (Wiederman, 1999). As a reading of Zillmann (2000) would suggest, our attention to (hardcore) pornography may be another limitation. An argument can be made that highly eroticised popular media contents (such as video clips, teen comedy movies) may convey more subtle and hidden messages about men and women, which could be more persuasive precisely because their sources are socially more acceptable than pornography. It could be argued, furthermore, that Zillmann was referring primarily to the situation in the United States and that the argument may not hold in more liberal European sexual cultures. Although there are some suggestions that sexual morality differs in the United States and Europe (Berne & Huberman, 1999; Weinberg, Lottes, & Shower, 1995; Widmer, Treas, & Newcomb, 1998), no systematic, comparable data on youth sexual cultures (including pornography use) exist that could verify such claim. Cross-cultural validation of the ndings presented in this article is clearly needed.

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Conclusions This study analysed the association between the use of pornography and intimacy among young Croatian adults. According to the ndings, adolescent exposure to sexually explicit materials is, practically, unrelated to relationship intimacy in young adulthood. Only among women, intimacy was associated by attitudes towards recreational sex, which were, in turn, only marginally predicted by the appraisal of pornographic realism. In light of contemporary concerns over the normalisation of pornography use, our study indicates that adolescent exposure to sexually explicit materials is an unlikely determinant of relationship intimacy among young Croatian adults. Note
1. Sexual colloushers and relationship intimacy are similar, but not identical concepts. In addition, Zillmann talks about possible effects of erotica (softcore) and our research study assesses the use of hardcore pornography.

Notes on contributors
Aleksandar tulhofer is full professor of sociology and the head of Sexology Unit at the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia. He coedited Sexuality and Gender in Postcommunist Eastern Europe and Russia (2005) and has recently published on the measurement of sexual satisfaction, pornography and sexual socialization, HIV risks and sexual risk taking among young adults, homonegativity in Europe, and the epidemiology of sexual health difculties. He has been working in the Eastern Mediterranean region as international consultant on HIV/AIDS behavioural surveillance. Vesna Buko is associate professor of psychology at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, where she chairs the Unit of Psychometrics. She teaches several subjects within the area of quantitative and psychometric methodology for undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students at the Department of Psychology. Her main research interests include the assessment of cognitive abilities, study of emotional intelligence, and applications of structural equation modelling methodology. She is editor-in-chief of the Review of Psychology, international journal of the Croatian Psychological Association.

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Gunter Schmidt, born 1938, psychotherapist and social psychologist, worked as professor at the Department of Sex Research, University of Hamburg, Germany. His main research area was social change of adolescents sexuality.

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