Integrating Religiosity and Pornography Use into the Prediction of Bystander Efficacy and Willingness to Prevent Sexual Assault

Abstract

This study examined relationships between intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity, reasons for using Internet pornography, frequency of using Internet pornography during the last year, and the degree to which participants believed they were both confident in their efficacy and were willing to intervene to help prevent a sexual assault from occurring. Students volunteered to take an online survey as one of several options for course credit in a research participation system in a School of Education at a midwestern public university. Men's extrinsic religiosity was positively correlated with their use of Internet pornography and negatively correlated with willingness to intervene as a bystander. Men's intrinsic religiosity was negatively correlated with how many reasons they had for using pornography and negatively correlated with their use of pornography. Women's extrinsic religiosity negatively correlated with their bystander efficacy. Women's intrinsic religiosity was negatively correlated with their reasons for using pornography and their use of pornography. Women's use of pornography was negatively correlated with bystander efficacy. A regression revealed that three religiosity variables and two pornography variables predicted 19% of the variance in women's bystander efficacy.