A Brief Scale to Measure Problematic Sexually Explicit Media Consumption: Psychometric Properties of the Obsessive Compulsive Pornography Consumption (OCPC) Scale among Men who have Sex with Men

Background: Men who have sex with men (MSM) have very high prevalence rates of sexually explicit media (SEM) consumption. SEM is highly acceptable to almost all MSM and is considered “ubiquitous” in the gay community. Although the phenomenon of hypersexuality has been described in the literature, and scales of compulsive sexual behavior have been published, the existing measures do not assess compulsive SEM consumption.

Methods: To address this gap, and as a first step in researching the effects of gay SEM, this study developed and tested the psychometric properties of a new scale, the Obsessive Compulsive Pornography Consumption (OCPC) scale. Participants in study 1 were 241 MSM who completed 7-day test-retest online surveys, and in study 2, 1165 MSM who completed online surveys once. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and reliability analysis were carried out to assess the psychometric properties of the OCPC scale.

Results: Factor analyses identified a five item two factor preoccupation-compulsivity solution, and validation testing showed good psychometric performance. As hypothesized, the scale correlates positively and moderately with compulsive sexual behavior, internalized homonegativity, and outness, and negatively with sexual self-esteem.

Conclusion: The scale can be used independently or as an additional subscale to measure sexual compulsivity more extensively. It will enable researchers to investigate the prevalence, cofactors and etiologic factors of compulsive pornography use, and clinicians to comprehensively assess problematic pornography consumption.