The Study of mediating role of attitude toward pornography and self –control in the relationship between religious commitment and tendency to internet pornography

The widespread negative effects of internet pornography as a growing issue in today’s world, has raised many questions about the factors influencing the tendency to it. The aim of the current study was to investigate the mediating role of attitude toward pornography and self-control in the relationship between religious commitment and tendency to internet pornography.

The study was a descriptive-correlation study. The statistical population consisted of all married men in Isfahan city. After informing via virtual social networks and a number of universities in Isfahan 123 married men voluntarily participated in the study by answering the questionnaire uploaded on a website. The used questionnaire were: The Pornography Craving Questionnaire (PCQ- Kraus & Rosenberg, 2014), Attitude toward pornography scale (Steelman, 2011), Religious Commitment Inventory (RCI-10- Worthington, et al, 2003) and Self Control Scale (SCS-Tangney, et al, 2004). For data analysis, structural equation modeling method with partial least squares (PLS) by the Warp-PLS software was used.

The results indicated that religious commitment both directly (ß=-0/25, P<0/01) and indirectly by the mediating role of attitude toward pornography (ß=-0/31, P<0/01) and self-control (ß=-0/80,P<0/01) is able to predict tendency to internet pornography in married men.

Based on the findings religious commitment, attitude toward pornography and self-control have detrimental roles in predicting tendency to internet pornography, and thus could function as protective factors against it. Thus, social health professionals can use religious teachings and self- control strategies in developing preventive and therapeutic programs for overcoming internet pornography in society