A NEW US study has found that daily pornography consumption among young adults leads to significant negative mental health outcomes, including higher rates of depression.
The Institute for Family Studies/YouGov survey of 2000 adults under the age of 40 determined that “pornography has become a daily part of life for many young adults”.
The study found that about 10 per cent of young adults aged 18–39 report watching pornography online “at least once a day”.
The study found that men are about twice as likely as women to report being daily users of online pornograpy.
It also found that people that identify with liberal values are about twice as likely to report watching online pornography as conservatives.
The trends for daily porn usage was similar for married and unmarried respondents and was roughly consistent across income and education levels, the survey found.
And “frequent use of online pornography is linked to an increased occurrence of negative mental health outcomes among young adults,” the study found, with roughly one-third of daily pornography users reporting feeling “down, depressed, or hopeless” most or all of the time, compared with just 19 per cent of those who rarely or never watch porn.
An even higher number of daily porn users, 36 per cent, report feeling lonely “all or most of the time,” compared with 20 per cent of those who consume porn rarely or never.
These findings remain even after controlling for factors like sex, marital status, and income.
Overall, daily porn consumption “doubles the risk of being depressed and increases the risk of feeling lonely by a similar amount,” the research said.
The new findings echo earlier studies that showed a similar link between heavy porn usage and negative mental health outcomes.
The researchers noted that daily porn use also “may displace activities that contribute to healthy social relationships, leaving users feeling more lonely and depressed.”
