Perry Samuel L, Hayward George M
Department of Sociology, University of Oklahoma.
Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Soc Forces. 2017 Jun;95(4):1757-1788. doi: 10.1093/sf/sow106. Epub 2017 Jan 10.
Pornography has become increasingly accessible in the United States, and particularly for younger Americans. While some research considers how pornography use affects the sexual and psychological health of adolescents and emerging adults, sociologists have given little attention to how viewing pornography may shape young Americans' connection to key social and cultural institutions, like religion. This article examines whether viewing pornography may actually have a secularizing effect, reducing young Americans' personal religiosity over time. To test for this, we use data from three waves of the National Study of Youth and Religion. Fixed-effects regression models show that more frequent pornography viewing diminishes religious service attendance, importance of religious faith, prayer frequency, and perceived closeness to God, while increasing religious doubts. These effects hold regardless of gender. The effects of viewing pornography on importance of faith, closeness to God, and religious doubts are stronger for teenagers compared to emerging adults. In light of the rapidly growing availability and acceptance of pornography for young Americans, our findings suggest that scholars must consider how increasingly pervasive pornography consumption may shape both the religious lives of young adults and also the future landscape of American religion more broadly.
色情内容在美国越来越容易获取，尤其是对美国年轻人而言。虽然一些研究探讨了观看色情内容如何影响青少年和刚成年者的性健康和心理健康，但社会学家很少关注观看色情内容如何塑造美国年轻人与关键社会和文化机构（如宗教）的联系。本文研究观看色情内容是否实际上具有世俗化效应，随着时间的推移降低美国年轻人的个人宗教虔诚度。为了对此进行测试，我们使用了来自三轮全国青少年与宗教研究的数据。固定效应回归模型表明，更频繁地观看色情内容会减少参加宗教仪式的次数、降低宗教信仰的重要性、减少祈祷频率以及削弱与上帝的感知亲近感，同时增加宗教怀疑。这些影响与性别无关。与刚成年者相比，观看色情内容对青少年的信仰重要性、与上帝的亲近感以及宗教怀疑的影响更强。鉴于色情内容在美国年轻人中迅速变得更容易获取且更被接受，我们的研究结果表明，学者们必须考虑日益普遍的色情内容消费如何不仅塑造年轻人的宗教生活，而且更广泛地塑造美国宗教的未来格局。
