Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33398696›Full record

ArticleArchives of sexual behavior2021

The Prevalence of Using Pornography for Information About How to Have Sex: Findings from a Nationally Representative Survey of U.S. Adolescents and Young Adults.

Emily F Rothman, Jonathon J Beckmeyer, Debby Herbenick, Tsung-Chieh Fu, Brian Dodge, J Dennis Fortenberry

Abstract read
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Archives of sexual behavior, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
30citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
8.6field-weighted citation impact, top 2% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

30 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 86 citations in OpenAlex.

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  15. Pornography Use and Coitus Interruptus: Is There a Link?Journal of health communication · 2025
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.

Emily F RothmanDepartment of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, 801 Massachusetts Ave., Floor 4, Boston, MA, 02118, USA. erothman@bu.edu.ORCID 0000-0003-0113-2577
Jonathon J BeckmeyerDepartment of Applied Health Science, Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA.
Debby HerbenickDepartment of Applied Health Science, Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA.
Tsung-Chieh FuDepartment of Applied Health Science, Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA.
Brian DodgeDepartment of Applied Health Science, Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA.
J Dennis FortenberryIndiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA.
Indiana University Bloomington · USBoston University · USIndiana University School of Medicine

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

We analyzed cross-sectional data collected from a U.S. nationally representative survey of individuals ages 14-24 years old on what sources of information from the past year they considered to be the most helpful about how to have sex (n = 600 adolescents ages 14-17 years old, and n = 666 young adults ages 18-24 years old). Among the 324 adolescents who indicated that they had been helped by at least one source of information, helpful information was most likely to have come from parents (31.0%) and friends (21.6%). Only 8.4% of adolescents said pornography was helpful. However, for those in the 18-24-year-old age group, pornography was the most commonly endorsed helpful source (24.5%), as compared to other possible options such as sexual partners, friends, media, and health care professionals. Multivariable regression analyses revealed that indicating that pornography was the most helpful source of information about how to have sex, compared to the other sources, was inversely associated with being female (OR = 0.32, p = .001), inversely associated with identifying as bisexual compared to heterosexual (OR = 0.15, p = .038), positively associated with being Black compared to being white non-Hispanic (OR = 4.26, p = .021), inversely associated with reporting a household income of either $25 K to $49,999 (OR = 0.31, p = .010) or $50 K to $74,999 (OR = 0.36, p = .019) compared to more than $75 K, and positively associated with having masturbated (OR = 13.20, p = .005). Subsequent research should investigate the role of pornography in both adolescent and adult sexual development, including why one-quarter of U.S. young adults say that pornography is a helpful source of information about how to have sex and what they think that they are learning from it.

Indexed as

Exploratory BehaviorAdolescentCommunications MediaCross-Sectional StudiesEroticaFemaleHeterosexualityHumansMalePrevalenceSex EducationSexual BehaviorSexual PartnersUnited StatesYoung AdultAdolescentPornographySex educationSexualitySexually explicit media

Identifiers

PMID33398696
OpenAlexW3118894570

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.