Watching and doing: are pornography use and sex motives correlated with hooking up among Chinese university women.

Abstract

Background: Research on pornography use and casual sex has lacked a comprehensive understanding of university women's engagement with such content. To address this gap, we examined pornography use, sexual motives and hookup behavior among university women in China from a sexual scripting perspective.

Methods: Participants (N = 1242) provided self-reported data on their frequency of pornography viewing, motives for and against sex, and hookup behavior.

Results: The findings showed that pornography consumption was positively associated with hookup behaviors. Pornography use was also positively correlated with all motives for sex, and negatively correlated with not ready motives. In turn, hookup behaviors were positively associated with enhancement and coping motives, but negatively associated with value and not ready motives. Moreover, some of these motives (e.g. enhancement and not ready) partly explained the link between pornography use and hookup.

Conclusion: These findings underscore the association between pornography use and casual sex engagement among Chinese university women, with specific motives for and against sex playing a relevant role. These insights may help inform targeted sexual health promotion strategies that support autonomy and sexual well-being among Chinese university women.