title: Psychometric development of the Problematic Pornography Use Scale.
abstract: Despite the increased social acceptance and widespread use of pornography over the past few decades, reliable and valid instruments assessing problematic use of pornography are lacking. This paper reports the findings of three studies aimed at developing and validating a new scale measuring problematic pornography use. The Problematic Pornography Use Scale (PPUS) items showed high internal consistency, convergent validity, and construct validity. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed four core factors relating to proposed domains of problematic pornography use. High PPUS scores were positively correlated with measures of psychopathology, low self-esteem and poor attachment. Although PPUS scores were related to other behavioral addictions, problematic pornography use as operationalized in the current paper appears to be uniquely distinguished from features of behavioral addictions relating to gambling and Internet use. Findings highlight the potential use of the PPUS for future research and possible clinical applications by defining problematic pornography use as a behavioral addiction.
authors.affiliation: Teachers College, Columbia University, USA. Electronic address: ak3251@tc.columbia.edu.
authors.forename: Ariel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kor
authors.affiliation: Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Israel.
authors.forename: Sigal
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zilcha-Mano
authors.affiliation: Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Israel.
authors.forename: Yehuda A
authors.initials: YA
authors.lastname: Fogel
authors.affiliation: Teachers College, Columbia University, USA.
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mikulincer
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California Los Angeles, USA.
authors.forename: Rory C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Reid
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, USA; Department of Neurobiology, Yale University School of Medicine, USA; Department of Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, USA.
authors.forename: Marc N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Potenza
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D004882:Erotica / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009769:Object Attachment; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012649:Self Concept; D057566:Self Report; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Addiction; Pornography; Pornography Scale