Development of the Attitudes toward Pornography Scale

The purpose of this study was to develop an attitude toward pornography scale in order to examine student beliefs and encourage further exploration of such attitudes. Participants, 63 males and 186 females, responded to 78 statements, on a seven point scale, regarding their pornography attitudes and beliefs. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted using maximum likelihood with Varimax rotation. The initial factor analysis extracted 20 factors with eigenvalues greater than 1.0. Based on the screen plot, a two factor solution was deemed appropriate. Factor 1 was labeled “BENEFICIAL” and accounted for 25.34% of the variance. The coefficient of variation for Factor 1 was .33. The reliability (internal consistency) of Factor 1 was .87. Factor II was labeled “DETRIMENTAL” and accounted for 6.77% of the variance. The coefficient of variation for Factor 2 was .33. The reliability (internal consistency) of Factor II the scale was .84. An initial examination of the validity of Factor 1 and Factor 2 was supported (ps ≤ .011). A series of one-way ANOVAs were conducted to examine whether bias existed as a function of subject characteristics. Significant differences were found in both Factor 1 and Factor 2 with respect to subject sex and subject race. Males and Blacks reported more positive attitudes toward pornography than did females and Whites. Further research investigating the sex and race biases, as well as the construct validity of the scale, is warranted.

Keywords:Pornography scale; Pornography attitudes: Sex differences