Abstract

With increased access and use of pornography over the internet, the association between pornography use and marital distress needed to be examined in a quantitative manner. There was a need to discover if, and or how, marital relationships are impacted by internet pornography use. Assessment instruments were used to measure internet pornography use (Internet Sex Screen Test revised for pornography), marital adjustment (Marital Adjustment Test items #1 and #14), marital satisfaction (Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale), and marital intimacy (Personal Assessment of Intimacy in Relationships). The results of this study suggested the following; there was a significant positive relationship between the level of internet pornography use and sexual intimacy as experienced by the wife (r=.80, p=.05), there was a significant negative relationship between a husbands internet pornography use and intellectual intimacy as experienced by the couple (r=-.57, p=.05), and no significant relationship between a husbands internet pornography use and his responses to the various dependent variables, implying that he is unaware of how his behaviors impact his wife. The other intimacy scales, as well as the marital adjustment and satisfaction criteria were not significantly influenced. Sample size and the power of statistical results needed to be explained in order to address possible Type II errors. The results of this study should be viewed as preliminary because of the small sample size and homogenous sample. The results of these findings are discussed, along with clinical applications, and suggestions for further study.

Degree

MS

College and Department

Family, Home, and Social Sciences; Family Life; Marriage and Family Therapy

Rights

http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

2005-07-05

Document Type

Thesis

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd881

Keywords

pornography, internet, marriage, satisfaction, adjustment, intimacy

Language

English

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