Tackling the relationship between pornography's consumption and female sexual scripts: does masturbation play an activating role?

ABSTRACT The present study addresses a neglected research question: does female masturbation moderate the association between pornography consumption during adolescence and sexual attitudes and behavior in later life? We adopt a theoretical perspective derived from the sexual script approach: since masturbation triggers the activation of sexual scripts acquired through porn exposure, we expect the former to increase the latter's association with the adoption of permissive and recreational sexual scripts. In order to answer our research question, several regression models were applied to a sample of Italian women. The random survey sample used here ensures that findings have greater generalizability than many previous studies on pornography. The empirical evidence is in line with expectations, indicating that masturbation plays an activating role in the association between underage porn consumption and the adoption of permissive and recreational sexual scripts in later life: this association is stronger among women who masturbated than among those who did not. The paper ends with a discussion of whether the shift towards these kinds of scripts can be seen as an improvement for female sexual agency and pleasure.