The effects of video game and pornography use on emerging male adults’ mental health

Abstract

Research has shown that in recent years, men are doing consistently worse in the fields of academia, employment, and social and romantic relationships. Concurrently, the pornography and video game industries have experienced an alarming exponential growth. Based on previous research, the current study united pornography and video game use under the overarching variable of ‘digital alternatives to real life’ and hypothesised that video game use and pornography use would negatively predict mental health in emerging male adults. A quantitative correlational online survey of 84 young adult men measured participants’ frequency of pornography and video game use, and measured their mental health using the PANAS scale, the Interaction Anxiousness Scale and the Flourishing Scale. Results indicated that a significant moderate correlation existed between pornography use and video game use. Multiple regressions indicated that video game and pornography use did not significantly predict mental health, although pornography use consistently emerged as the stronger predictor. Future experimental and longitudinal research is recommended to determine whether a causal relationship exists between pornography and video game use and mental health.