Examining the Role of Long-Term Media Use Trajectories in Media Effects: A Case of Sexually Explicit Internet Use and Impersonal Sex

Media effects theories suggest that attitudes and behaviors are affected by long-term habits of media use. However, the nature of effects of such long-term media use trajectories has remained mostly unexplored. In the current four-wave panel study (N = 400), a latent growth model for sexually explicit internet material (SEIM) use frequency over a period of six years was estimated and its growth factors were used to predict impersonal sex. Supporting the long-term media effects assumption, a trajectory that reflects higher levels of SEIM use throughout adolescence predicted more impersonal sexual attitudes among male emerging adults. In turn, more positive attitudes toward impersonal sex predicted a higher likelihood of having engaged in a one-night-stand by emerging adulthood.