Jurnal Psikologi Indonesia Vol 12 No 1 2017 Himpsi

HIMPSI
ISSN: 0853-3098

JURNAL
PSIKOLOGI
INDONESIA
2017, Juni, Vol XII, No 1, h. 1-117

•

CONTRIBUTING FACTORS TO PORNOGRAPHY DISTRESS IN PORNOGRAPHY
USERS’ WIVES (h. 1-18)
Inez Kristanti and Dinastuti
Faculty of Psychology, Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia

•

‘AKTIF’ TEACHER TRAINING PROGRAM TO INCREASE TEACHERS’ SELF
EFFICACY IN TEACHING CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS (h. 19-30)
Amitya Kumara, Dian Mufitasari, Krysna Yudy Nusantari, and Iga Serpianing Aroma
Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

•

EFEKTIVITAS COGNITIVE BEHAVIOR THERAPY UNTUK DEWASA MUDA
DENGAN ACROPHOBIA (h. 31- 40)
Garvin
Universitas Bunda Mulia
Monty Satiadarma dan Denrich Suryadi
Universitas Tarumanagara

•

EMOSI POSITIF PADA IBU YANG MEMILIKI ANAK DENGAN GANGGUAN
SPEKTRUM AUTIS (h. 41- 62)
Nurussakinah Daulay
Universitas Islam Negeri Sumatera Utara

•

BENARKAH UKURAN SAMPEL MINIMAL = 30 ? (h. 63-84)

Agung Santoso
Universitas Sanata Dharma

•

PRAKTEK KESELAMATAN KERJA DITINJAU DARI SUDUT PANDANG
KARYAWAN (h. 85-104)
Raden Siti Ayunda Nurita dan Rayini Dahesihsari
Magister Psikologi Profesi, Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma Jaya

•

ART THERAPY BERBASIS CBT UNTUK MENURUNKAN AGRESIVITAS ANAK
KORBAN KEKERASAN DALAM RUMAH TANGGA (h. 105-117)
Yustisia Anugrah Septiani dan Maria Goretti Adiyanti
Universitas Gadjah Mada

JURNAL PSIKOLOGI INDONESIA

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Prof. Dr. Faturochman, M.A.
Prof. A Supratiknya, Ph.D., Psikolog
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Jurnal Psikologi Indonesia
PORNOGRAPHY DISTRESS
2017, Vol. XII, No. 1, 1-18, ISSN. 0853-3098

Himpunan Psikologi Indonesia

1

CONTRIBUTING FACTORS TO
PORNOGRAPHY DISTRESS IN
PORNOGRAPHY USERS’ WIVES
(FAKTOR-FAKTOR PENDUKUNG
PORNOGRAPHY DISTRESS PADA ISTRI
PENGGUNA PORNOGRAFI)
Inez Kristanti and Dinastuti
Faculty of Psychology, Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia
Some women react negatively to their husbands’ habit of using pornographic materials and this reaction is
called pornography distress which can potentially bring damage to a marriage such as lowering the quality of
sexual activities and marital satisfaction. To help solve the issue, the differentiating factors between women
who experienced pornography distress and those who did not were identified. Seven contributing factors to
pornography distress were proposed: perceived frequency of husband’s pornography use, the duration of
knowledge about husband’s pornography use, the way of knowing about husband’s pornography use, attitude
towards pornography use, and exposure to sexual content from the media, religious salience, and
differentiation of self. This research aimed to discuss factors that significantly contribute to pornography
distress. Data from 161 women who are married to pornography users were obtained through accidental
sampling. All participants were currently residing in Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, or Bekasi. Multiple
linear regression analysis found four significant contributing factors: the way the subjects found out about their

husbands’ pornography use, attitude towards pornography, religious salience, and differentiation of self.
Results showed that contributing factors to pornography distress came from various sources. Each spouse
should work together to achieve some sort of agreement and understanding to solve pornography distress
issues. Several suggestions regarding the issue are discussed.

Keywords: marriage, pornography, pornography distress, sexuality, wives

Sebagian perempuan menunjukkan reaksi negatif terhadap kebiasaan suami menggunakan pornografi.
Reaksi ini disebut sebagai pornography distress. Pornography distress dapat mendatangkan dampak buruk
dalam pernikahan, misalnya menurunkan kualitas hubungan seksual dan kepuasan pernikahan. Untungnya,
tidak semua perempuan menunjukkan tanda-tanda pornography distress. Untuk membantu penyelesaian
masalah ini, faktor yang membedakan antara perempuan yang mengalami dan tidak mengalami pornography
distress perlu diidentifikasi. Terdapat tujuh faktor yang diduga berkontribusi terhadap pornography distress;
persepsi tentang frekuensi penggunaan pornografi suami, lama mengetahui penggunaan pornografi suami,
cara mengetahui penggunaan pornografi suami, sikap terhadap pornografi secara umum, keterapaparan
terhadap konten seksual dalam media, religious salience, dan diferensiasi diri. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk
menemukan faktor-faktor yang berkontribusi secara signifikan terhadap pornography distress. Data dari 161
istri pengguna pornografi diperoleh dengan accidental sampling. Semua partisipan tinggal di Jakarta, Bogor,
Depok, Tangerang, atau Bekasi pada saat pengambilan data. Analisis menggunakan multiple linear
regression menunjukkan adanya empat faktor yang berkontribusi secara sgnifikan: cara mengetahui

penggunaan pornografi suami, sikap terhadap pornografi, religious salience, dan diferensiasi diri. Hasil

1

2

KRISTANTI & DINASTUTI

penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa faktor yang berkontribusi terhadap pornography distress datang dari
sumber yang beragam. Oleh karena itu, masing-masing pihak dalam pernikahan perlu bekerjasama untuk
memperoleh kesepakatan dan pemahaman satu sama lain yang dapat menyelesaikan masalah pornography
distress. Beberapa langkah praktis akan didiskusikan dalam artikel ini.

Kata kunci: pernikahan, pornography, pornography distress, seksualitas, istri

Pornography is “any sexually oriented
material that is created simply for the
purpose of arousing viewer” (Carroll, 2010).
Pornography materials are easily accessed
from almost all kinds of media-internet, in

particular (Copper et al., as cited in Stewart
& Szymanski, 2012; P.M. Markey &
Markey, 2012). It is hard to tell the exact
number of pornography users in Indonesia,
however most people agree that this
country shows high usage of pornography
materials, occupying first to fifth rank in the
world (“Kominfo sebut”, 2012; Olivia, 2013;
Pitoyo, 2012; Suryanto, 2009).
Research on pornography in Indonesia
is largely emphasized on teenage
population (Ramadhan, 2013; Roviana,
2011; “Sebagian besar”, 2013), when there
are plenty of married individuals actively
seeking pleasure from pornography
materials. A pilot study conducted to 98
married individuals in Jabodetabek (an
acronym referring to five big cities in West
Java: Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang,
Bekasi) shows that 81.63% of them uses

pornography. Thirty percent of them uses
pornography once to seven times a week.
Large proportion (83.33%) of married
women admit the tendency to use
pornography with their partners while more
men (56.82%) prefer to do it alone. Men
tend to use pornography as a mean to
achieve sexual pleasure without their

partners while women tend to use it to
elevate sexual pleasure before having
sexual intercourse. These findings are
consistent with Hald (as cited in Carroll,
2010) and Strager (2003) that most of men
use pornography to achieve sexual
pleasure, by masturbating.
The primary purpose of men’s
pornography use as sexual gratification
leads to further question about how the
usage might psychologically affect their

wives. There has not been a single study
that addresses this issue in the context of
marriage; however, there are at least two
United States studies (Bergner & Bridges,
2002; Bridges, Bergner, & Hesson-McInnis,
2003) that question the impact of men’s
pornography use towards women who are
involved with them romantically. The first
study conducted by analyzing online
messages written by 100 women in four
internet message boards about their
partners’ heavy pornography usage
(Bergner & Bridges, 2002). This study
concluded that men’s pornography use can
potentially alter their partners’ view about
themselves: they tend to view themselves
more negatively; they tend to feel less
worthy or attractive, they tend to feel weak
and stupid because their male partners
have treated them inappropriately. These

negative conceptions are not only
developed towards themselves, but also

PORNOGRAPHY DISTRESS

their partners. They tend to view their
partners as perverts or sex addicts. Men’s
pornography use might also affect their
partners’ view on their relationships.
Women in these relationships tend to feel
betrayed, as if their partners have
“cheated”. Bridges, et al. (2003) summed
up these negative responses with one term:
pornography
distress,
or
negative
experience/condition that is felt by an
individual as a response to her partner’s
pornography use.
These findings by Bergner and Bridges
(2002) serve as empirical evidence that
women might be significantly affected by
their
partners’
pornography
use.
Meanwhile, men’s pornography use is
proved to correlate significantly with the
overall relationship satisfaction (Poulsen,
Busby, & Galovan, 2013). Moreover, a
survey
by
American
Academy
of
Matrimonial Lawyers in Chicago (as cited in
Manning, 2006) shows that 56% of divorce
cases
in
2002
involved
internet
pornography usage issue by one of the
spouses. The presence of this long-term
effect makes pornography distress as an
issue that needs to be addressed. One
thing to keep in mind is that not all women
who are married to pornography users
actually experience pornography distress.
Bergner and Bridges (2002) acknowledged
that the data that they gathered for their
first study was obtained from a highly
distressed
population
(women
who
deliberately complained and sought help
regarding their partners’ pornography use).
They then conducted a quantitative study to
100 women who were involved in romantic
relationships with pornography users

3

(Bridges et al., 2003). In general, this group
of women showed neutral to positive
reactions
towards
their
partners’
pornography use. This same kind of
variation was also found to the
Jabodetabek pilot study (conducted by the
authors). Sixteen percent out of 33 women
also
supported
their
husbands’
pornography use, 63.16% of them had
neutral attitude, while only 21.05% if them
felt surprised or uncomfortable.
The presence of these women who
shows more positive reactions towards
their husbands’ pornography use may
serve as the key to solve pornography
distress problems. The next critical step is
to identify factors that differentiate between
women who experience pornography
distress and those who do not. In
identifying these differentiation factors, we
took account both empirical and theoretical
supporting
evidence
from
several
perspectives. Based on extensive review of
literatures which focus on how pornography
impacts marriage, we found seven factors
which have been proven empirically to be
related to pornography distress, or, at least
have been expected to be theoretically
related (Bergner & Bridges, 2002; Bridges
et al., 2003; Cavaglion & Rashty, 2010;
Ford, Durtschi, & Franklin, 2012; W. Maltz
& Maltz, 2009; Ogas & Gaddam, 2011;
Schneider, Weiss, & Samenow, 2012;
Sessoms, 2011; Stewart & Szymanski,
2012; Ward & Friedman, 2006; Zitzman &
Butler, 2009). These seven factors are: (1)
perceived frequency of pornography use,
(2) the duration of knowledge about
pornography use, (3) the way of knowing
about husband’s pornography use, (4)

4

KRISTANTI & DINASTUTI

attitude towards pornography use, (5)
exposure to sexual content from the media,
(6) religious salience, and (7) differentiation
of self. Their relations to pornography
distress will be discussed below.
The inclusion of first factor (perceived
frequency of pornography use) was
supported by Bridges et al.’s (2003) study,
which concluded that perceived frequency
of husbands’ pornography use was
positively correlated with pornography
distress.
Husbands’
frequency
of
pornography use-as reported by their
wives-was negatively correlated with
relationship quality, sexual satisfaction, and
self-esteem (Stewart & Szymansky, 2012).
The second factor (duration of
knowledge about pornography use) were
supported by findings that women showed
fluctuated
responses
towards
their
partners’ pornography use from time to
time
(Cavaglion
&
Rashty,
2010;
Schneider, Weiss, & Samenow, 2012;
Zitzman & Butler, 2009). W. Maltz and
Maltz (2009) discussed several stages that
women experiences during their discovery
of partners’ pornography use. They
explained that women in general would feel
surprised and hurt right after the discovery
of partners’ pornography use. However,
over time they would be expected to show
a more accepting attitude towards this
situation.
Third, feelings of surprise and hurt
might not be experienced universally by all
women in this situation. We suspected that
how women responding to their partners’
pornography use would be partially
determined by how they discover the
usage. There has not been found a single

literature that specifically addresses this
issue, however, from case descriptions
found in Ford, Durtschi, and Franklin (2012)
and Ogas and Gaddam (2011) we can
conclude that the reaction of distressed as
feelings of being cheated or sense of
worthlessness tended to be found in
women who discover their partners’
pornography use by catching their partners
on their acts or finding the evidence of their
usage (such as internet histories or
VCD/DVD materials). Meanwhile, we have
not found any distress with the same level
of intensity on women whose husbands
honestly disclosed their pornography habit.
This pattern of response would seem
logical as study successfully concluded that
some women felt that the heart of the
problem did not lie on the usage per se, but
on the dishonesty and deceit performed by
their partners (Zitzman & Butler, 2009).
These findings set a good foundation to
include the third factor (the way of knowing
about husband’s pornography use) into our
hypothesis.
Fourth, Bergner and Bridges (2002)
found
women
who
experienced
pornography distress developed a more
negative view towards their partners as
individuals, such as seeing their partners
as perverts or degraded in terms of
sexuality. This finding raised further
question: “are those negative conceptions
emerged simply because it was their
partners who used the pornography
materials or these women had actually
possessed those negative attitudes,
regardless of the subjects who were using
the materials?” The logic was to suspect
that if women have been indeed holding

PORNOGRAPHY DISTRESS

negative attitudes towards pornography
usage in general, it would be more likely for
them to show high pornography distress
when their partners were also users.
Therefore, it was reasonable to suspect
that
women’s
general
attitude
to
pornography
use
also
served
as
determinant for their pornography distress.
Fifth, it is also important to address that
pornography was never a sole provider of
sexual contents, as people may also find
them in other forms of media, such as
movies, TV series, music videos, or
internet. While all kinds of information from
media have strong influence to individual’s
opinions and beliefs, sexual content seen
from media is also potential to alter
individual opinions and beliefs regarding
sexual matter. Moreover, Ward and
Friedman (2006) also found that the habit
of viewing sexual content from television
had significant and positive correlation with
individual support towards recreational
sexual behavior, including pornography.
Therefore, women who are exposed daily
to sexual content from numbers of media
are expected to show less rejection
towards husbands’ pornography habit. In
the other words, it is less likely that those
women would experience pornography
distress compared to their counterparts.
Therefore, it was safe to conclude that fifth
factor (exposure to sexual content from the
media) might contribute to women’s
experience of pornography distress.
Sixth, the authors would also like to
raise a religious factor as a contributor to
pornography distress. Pornography is
usually seen as something that goes
against religious values. Several studies

5

showed that there was negative correlation
between
religiosity
and
individual
acceptance to pornography materials
(Carroll; Woodrum; Lambe; Nelson et al.,
as cited in Sessoms, 2011). It is probably
safe as well to expect that the higher
religious salience, the harder it is for her to
accept if one of their significant others (e.g.
spouse) is actively involved in pornography.
Hypothetically, it is logical enough to expect
that this acceptance difficult might result in
high pornography distress.
Last, a focus to individual internal factor
might also beneficial in determining the
contributing
factors
to
pornography
distress. In this regard, the authors
proposed differentiation of self-the degree
to which one is able to balance (a)
emotional and intellectual functioning and
(b) intimacy and autonomy in relationships
as another possible contributing factor.
Highly differentiated individual is able to
regulate her emotion under stressful
situation. In contrast, a poorly differentiated
person tends to experience more difficulties
to remain calm in response to the
emotionality of others and tends to be
easily affected by their close ones’
behavior. The authors argue that these
tendencies might serve as one possible
explanation
underlying
pornography
distressed individuals’ behavior.
The purpose of this study is to examine
whether those seven factors-as a wholecontribute to pornography distress. If those
seven factors together had shown
significant contribution, it would be
examined further which factors that show
significant contribution individually.
The importance of this study lay

6

KRISTANTI & DINASTUTI

primarily on the significance of pornography
distress issue in marital context, while at
the same time there had not been a single
study intending to address this issue in
Indonesia. Despite of the low number of
women admitting their disapproval towards
their husbands’ pornography use in the
pilot study, almost half of them (42.42%)
further admitted that they intend to
eliminate or at least alleviate the usage.
This slight inconsistency between the two
data might be mediated by the nature of
collectivistic culture in Indonesia which
shows less favor on the expression of
negative emotions (Eisenberg, Pidada, &
Liew, 2001; Markus & Kitayama, 1991;
Oyserman, 1993). It is highly possible that
women who showed support or ignorance
towards their husbands’ pornography use
might secretly feel the negative emotion or
pornography distress. It is important to take
this possibility into account as an indication
that the pornography distress problem in
Jabodetabek might be more serious than it
looks on the raw data. This study then
might become the first ever culturally
sensitive reference for treating the problem
and anticipating its negative consequences
in marital context.
Based on the above, this research
aimed to test one hypothesis and answer
one question: H1: Perceived frequency of
husband’s pornography use, the duration of
knowledge about husband’s pornography
use, the way of knowing about husband’s
pornography
use,
attitude
towards
pornography use, exposure to sexual
content from the media, religious salience,
and differentiation of self, contributed
together and significantly to pornography

distress.
R1: Which factors among the seven
proposed
contribute
individually
to
pornography distress?

Methods
Participants
Participants were 161 Indonesian
women who met the following criteria: (1)
married; (2) were aware of their husbands’
pornography use; (3) resided in Greater
Jakarta which include Jakarta, Bogor,
Depok, Tangerang, or Bekasi. There was
no age limitation for participation as one of
most important part of this study is the
variation of its subjects (participants aged
from 19-57 years). Mean age of
participants was 35.81 years (SD = 9.77).
City of residence were check against the
estimated population of married women
living in Jabodetabek (estimated through
the number of household within the five
areas; Badan Pusat Statistik Jawa Barat,
2010; Badan Pusat Statistik Kota Depok,
2010; Badan Pusat Statistik Kota
Tangerang, 2011; “Provinsi DKI”, 2010).
Participants
were
found
to
be
representative in terms of domicile.
Procedure
Online and hard copy questionnaires
were administered to 565 married women
living in Jabodetabek with the help from 8
enumerators (second year students of
psychology undergraduate program in
Atma
Jaya
Catholic
University
of
Indonesia). 167 out of the 565 did not
manage to finish all the questions and 237
did not aware of their husbands’

PORNOGRAPHY DISTRESS

pornography use. Complete responses
were
obtained
from
161
eligible
participants.
Measures
The instrument consisted of 120 items
and was divided into seven parts. Part one
consisted of a short instruction and items
related
to
socio-demographic
characteristics (age, sex, city of residence,
education, religion, ethnicity, economic
status, occupation, marriage status, age of
spouse, and age of marriage). To preserve
confidentiality, participants were allowed to
provide initials instead of their real names.
To avoid misinterpretation, participants
were informed about the definition of
pornography use: the act of seeing,
reading, or hearing pornographic materials
(e.g. pictures, sketches, illustrations,
photos, narrations, sounds, moving images,
animations,
conversations)
with
the
purpose of obtaining sexual pleasure. Any
kinds of sexual contact with real persons
are not considered as pornography here.
Part two, three, four, five, and six consisted
items to measure our research variable:
Pornography distress: Pornography
Distress Scale-Short Form (32-PDS). 32PDS was constructed by Bridges et al.
(2003) measuring the extent of negative
feelings experienced by women as the
response to their partners’ pornography
use. This measure was adapted to
Indonesian version for the purpose of this
study (Cronbach’s alpha= .96).
Perceived frequency of husbands’
pornography use. This variable was
measured by asking participants with the
following question: “To your knowledge,

7

how often does your husband use
pornography?” with the following options: 1)
less than once a month; 2) two to four
times a month; 3) one to two times a week;
4) three to five times a week; 5) once a
day; 6) several times a day.
Duration
of
knowledge
about
husband’s pornography use. This
variable was measured by asking
participants with the following question:
“How long have you known about your
husband’s pornography use? (please give
your best estimate)” Participants were
asked to respond in year and month (___
year(s) and ___ month(s)).
The
way
of
knowing
about
husband’s pornography use. This
variable was measured by asking
participants with the following question:
“How did you first find out about your
husband’s pornography use?” with the
following options: 1) had been asked by
husband to join his pornography use; 2)
had been told by husband about his
pornography use; 3) had found proof of his
pornography use; 4) had caught him in his
pornography using act; 5) others (please
specify).
Exposure to sexual content from the
media. This variable was measured by a
method of measuring exposure to a specific
content from media introduced by Bleakley,
Fishbein, Hennessy, Jordan, Chernin, and
Stevens (2008), with slight adjustment to fit
this research context. First, participants
were asked to mention three television
shows,
three
internet
sites,
three
newspapers or magazines, and three music
artists that they watch, access, read, or
listen to the most. They then were asked to

8

KRISTANTI & DINASTUTI

rate: 1) the frequency of their consumption
to those media from the last 12 months
(from the scale of 1 to 4; 1 = “rarely”; 2 =
“sometimes”; 3 = most of the time”; 4 =
“always”); 2) the intensity of sexual content
involved in those media (from the scale of 1
to 4: 1 = “no sexual content”; 2 = “a little
sexual content”; 3 = “some sexual content”;
4 = “a lot of sexual content”). Because the
scale of 1 refers to no sexual content at all,
for analytical purpose the intensity of
sexual content scale of 1 to 4 would be
converted to 0 to 3. For each television
show, internet site, newspaper, and
magazine, the frequency score would then
be multiplied by the intensity score, and
finally the result of those multiplications
would be added to produce the final
exposure to sexual content from the media
score.
Attitude towards pornography use:
Attitude towards Pornography Use
Scale (APUS). APUS was constructed
originally for the purpose of this study,
measuring
individual
psychological
tendency to give favorable or unfavorable
evaluation towards pornography use (e.g.
how individual thinks, feels, or reacts to
pornography use). Cronbach’s alpha on
this scale was .92.
Religious
salience:
Religious
Salience Scale (RSS). RSS was
constructed originally for the purpose of this
study, measuring the extent which religious
belief influences individual’s thoughts and
feelings in his daily lives. Cronbach’s alpha
on this scale was .96.
Differentiation of self: Differentiation
of Self Inventory (DSI). DSI was
constructed by Skowron and Friedlander

(1998) measuring the degree to which one
is able to balance (a) emotional and
intellectual functioning and (b) intimacy and
autonomy in relationships (Bowen, as cited
in Skowron & Friedlander, 1998). This
measure originally consists of four
subscales (Skowron & Friedlander, 1998):
Emotional Reactivity (ER; “the degree to
which a person responds to environmental
stimuli with emotional flooding”, I Position
(IP; “reflects a clearly defined sense of self
and the ability to thoughtfully adhere to his
convictions when pressured to do
otherwise”), Emotional Cutoff (EC; “reflects
feeling threatened by intimacy and feeling
excessive vulnerability in relations with
others”), and Fusion with Others (FO;
“reflects emotional over involvement with
others, including triangulation and over
identification with parents”). Based on
personal correspondence with the original
author, only ER, IP, and EC subscales
were adapted to Indonesian version for the
purpose of this study, as these three
subscales translate better across culture.
Cronbach’s alpha on full scale and three
subscales (ER, IP, and EC) were .84, .76,
.77, and .77 respectively.

Results
Considering
the
range
of
the
instruments and the actual median
obtained from the research data (Table 1),
the authors made conclusion about each
research variables. We present the data in
median because it is less susceptible to
extreme scores (Gravetter & Wallnau,
2013). Considering that the lowest possible
score was 7 and the highest possible score

9

PORNOGRAPHY DISTRESS

Table 1
Descriptive Statistics of Continuously-Scaled Research Variables

Pornography distress
Duration of
knowledge about
husband’s
pornography use
Attitude towards
pornography use
Exposure to sexual
content from the
media
Religious salience
Differentiation of self

Mean

Median

Score range of
the instruments

Score range of the
obtained data

92.7343

88.0000

7-224

34-189

8.535
(years)

5.000
(years)

-

1 (week)-40
(years)

38.8137

39.0000

6-84

12-79

17.2422

16.0000

0-144*

0-80

29.4886
127.4846

31.0000
127.0000

7-35
6-204

13-35
83-180

Table 2
Hypothesis Testing using Multiple Regression Analysis (Enter Method)

225.504

Standard
of error
20.687

1.190

2.292

-6.646

B
Constant
Perceived frequency of
husband’s pornography use
Way of knowing about
husband’s pornography use
Had been told by husband
about his pornography use*
Had found proof of his
pornography use*
Had caught him in his
pornography using act*
Others*
Duration of knowledge about
husband’s pornography use
Attitude towards pornography
use
Exposure to sexual content from
the media
Religious salience
Differentiation of self
* Dummy variable

β

t

p

10.901

.000

.034

.519

.604

6.298

-.078

-1.055

.293

15.796

6.445

.190

2.451

.015

44.647

9.758

.315

4.575

.000

21.687

15.935

.088

1.361

.176

.102

.298

.021

.344

.731

-.862

.178

-.333

-4.846

.000

.097

.159

.039

.613

.541

-1.717

.425

-.262

-4.036

.000

225.504
1.190

20.687
2.292

.034

10.901
.519

.000
.604

was 224, it can be concluded that the

10

KRISTANTI & DINASTUTI

Table 3
Hypothesis Testing using Multiple Regression Analysis (Stepwise Method)

228.285

Standard
of error
20.052

47.693

9.010

-.833
-.497
-1.672
17.881

B
Constant
Way of knowing about husband’s
pornography use:
Had caught him in his
pornography using act*
Attitude towards pornography use
Differentiation of self
Religious salience
Way of knowing about husband’s
pornography use:
Had found proof of his
pornography use*
* Dummy variable

research participants tended to show low
pornography distress (median = 88). The
data also showed that the participants tend
to
acknowledge
their
husbands’
pornography use for quite short time (5
years). Considering the possible range of
6-84, the data also showed that participants
tended to hold normal to negative attitude
towards pornography use (median = 39).
The median of 16 (compared to 0-144 of
range) showed that participants tended to
be exposed to little amount of sexual
content from media. On the other hand,
median of 31 (compared to 7-35 of range)
and 127 (compared to 6-204 of range) also
showed that research participants tended
to have high religious salience and
differentiation of self.
The descriptive statistics also showed
that the majority of participant perceived
very
low
frequency
of
husbands’
pornography use (over 44% of them
reported less than once a month usage).

β

t

p

11.385

.000

.337

5.294

.000

.166
.123
.419

-.322
-.250
-.255

-5.024
-4.033
-3.993

.000
.000
.000

5.303

.215

3.372

.001

Another descriptive statistics showed a
diverse figure on participants’ ways of
knowing
about
their
husbands’
pornography use. However, it might be
concluded that the majority of participants
acknowledged their husbands’ pornography
use by finding proof of their husbands’
pornography use themselves (31.06%),
through their husbands’ invitation to join
them (29.19%), or through their husbands’
disclosure (29.19%).
Hypothesis testing
Hypothesis 1: Perceived frequency of
husband’s pornography use, the duration of
knowledge about husband’s pornography
use, the way of knowing about husband’s
pornography
use,
attitude
towards
pornography use, exposure to sexual
content from the media, religious salience,
and differentiation of self, contribute
together and significantly to pornography

PORNOGRAPHY DISTRESS

distress.
To test this hypothesis, we made use of
multiple regression analysis, using Enter
method (Table 2). One variable (way of
knowing about husband’s pornography
use) was measured in nominal scale, and
for this case we made use of dummy
variables to include it on the regression
analysis.
The result showed that perceived
frequency of husband’s pornography use,
the duration of knowledge about husband’s
pornography use, the way of knowing about
husband’s pornography use, attitude
towards pornography use, exposure to
sexual content from the media, religious
salience, and differentiation of self,
contributed together and significantly to
pornography distress (F (10,150) = 12.200, p <
0.05). However, this analysis had not yet
determined which of the seven factors
individually contributed to pornography
distress. This issue will be addressed on
next research question.
Answering research question
Research question 1: Which factors
among the seven proposed contribute
individually to pornography distress?
Using the Stepwise method of multiple
regression analysis (Table 3) it was found
that not all of the seven proposed factors
actually
contributed
individually
to
pornography distress. Only four of them
were: the way of knowing about husband’s
pornography use (significant only on two
dummy variables: had caught him in his
pornography using act and had found proof
of his pornography use), attitude towards
pornography use, differentiation of self, and

11

religious salience (F (5,155) = 23.456, p <
0.05). This regression model contributed for
41.20%
of
the
variation
among
pornography distress.
The direction of each contribution may
also be concluded. The biggest contributor
(way of knowing about husband’s
pornography use, dummy variable: 1) had
caught him in his pornography using act (t
= 5.294, p < .05); 2) had found the proof of
his usage (t = 3.372, p < .05)) contributed
in positive direction. In other words, if a
woman
discovered
her
husband’s
pornography use by one of those two
modes, her pornography distress would be
increased. This finding confirmed the initial
notion that women who find out about their
husbands’ pornography use in a way that
does not suggest their husbands’ openness
about the issue to them, would then
experience higher pornography distress.
On the other hand, attitude towards
pornography use (t = -5.024, p < .05),
religious salience (t = -4.033, p < .05), and
differentiation of self (t = -3.993, p < .05) all
contributed in negative directions. In other
words, the higher women’s attitude towards
pornography use, religious salience, or
differentiation
of
self,
the
lower
pornography
distress
she
would
experience. Variable regarding women’s
attitude towards pornography use showed
a consistent direction with the initial idea
that a positive attitude would help women
to accept their husbands’ habits. A high
differentiation of self-orthe ability to balance
intimacy and autonomy function in a
relationship-also seemed to be helpful in
acceptinghusband’s pornography habit
without showing any exaggerated feelings.

12

KRISTANTI & DINASTUTI

An interesting result was shown by
religious salience variable. The research
data showed that this variable contributed
to pornography distress negatively, that the
higher religious salience, the lower
pornography distress would be. This result
was not consistent with the initial
expectation. This interesting inconsistency
would be further discussed in discussion.

using pornography tended to show lower
level of distress compared to women who
were not involved in pornography (U = 931,
p < .05). Moreover, women whose
husbands’ usually used pornography with
their
friends
experienced
more
pornography distress compared to women
whose husbands’ had usually used the
pornography with them (U = 321, p < .167).

Additional Findings
This research also addressed several
other aspects that may be related to
pornography distress in marital context.
Some additional information was gathered
regarding participants’ religion, marital age,
their own pornography use (whether they
themselves actively use pornography),
frequency of their own pornography use,
pattern of husbands’ pornography habits
(whether their husbands use pornography
in a solitary way, with the wives’
companion,
or
with
their
friends’
companion), and when the discovery of
their husbands’ pornography use took
place (was it before or after marriage).
Due to the unevenness of the
distributions, analysis for these additional
variables was conducted using nonparametric statistics. The results indicated
that some of the variables (participants’
religion, their own pornography use, and
pattern of husbands’ pornography habits)
might add more information to our
understanding of pornography distress. It
was found that Buddhist women tended to
show lower level of distress in regards of
husbands’ pornography use, compared to
Christian women (U = 145.5, p < .125).
Also, women who themselves were actively

Discussion
This study found that the regression
model consisting seven proposed variables
contributed significantly to pornography
distress in pornography users’ wives.
However, this was actually not the best
model to predict the level of distress they
are experiencing. It was also found that the
better model consists of only four
contributors: way of knowing about
husband’s pornography use, attitude
towards pornography use, differentiation of
self, and religious salience. While there
was at least a factor outside women’s
control that determine her pornography
distress (i.e. the way of knowing about their
husbands’ pornography use), there were
also factors related to women’s own
psychological aspect (i.e. their own attitude
towards
pornography
use,
their
differentiation of self, and their religious
salience). Looking at this result, we are
convinced that the nature of pornography
consumption issue in marital context
cannot be attributed solely to one party
within the marriage. Therefore, counselors
and individuals who are dealing with this
problem should be aware that each party in
the marriage needs to work together to

PORNOGRAPHY DISTRESS

achieve some sort of agreement and
understanding to solve pornography
distress issues.
This finding also showed that despite of
the absence of similar study conducted in
Indonesia, the present study was
successful on giving valuable information.
This study also showed an interesting
result in regards to religious salience
variable. This particular variable actually
showed significant contribution in the
opposite direction compared to the initial
hypothesis. It was expected that high
identification to religious values might
prevent women to accept their husbands’
pornography use. In other words, the
higher religious salience, the higher
pornography distress.
This unconfirmed hypothesis might be
explained by revisiting the role of religious
salience in woman’s dynamic of emotion
and distress while facing this issue. A
couple of findings showed that religiosity
can play a vital card in helping individual to
be more resilient and adaptable while
facing difficult situation (Van Dyke,
Glenwick, Cecero, & Kim, 2009; Jang &
Johnson, 2004; Marks, 2005; Roemer,
2010; Salsman & Carlson, 2005).
Moreover, some findings showed that
religiosity has become one of the main
coping strategy for Indonesian individuals
(Fathi, Nasae, & Thiangchanya, 2010;
Ismail & Basuki, 2012; Safaria, Othman,
&Wahab, 2010). Findings by Permatasari
(2006) and Felicia (2005) also showed that
one of the most popular coping strategies
used by married women in Indonesia was
turning to religion. With this notion in mind,
we might see this present finding in

13

different light, that high religious salience
may provide women to evaluate her
husband pornography use more positively.
Hence, she experiences lower pornography
distress.
Despite delivering interesting results,
this study also met some limitations. One of
them was low participation rate. Large
number of participants (at total of 237
people)
refused
to
continue
their
participation in this study. This might be
explained by several factors: 1) lengthy
questionnaire and 2) the nature of talking
about sexuality in Indonesia, which is still
considered taboo.
The
second
limitation
was
generalization. Most of the samples were
women with low pornography distress. This
is an important matter to be addressed as
these research findings may not be
applicable to the more varied sample of
women. The conception of sexual taboo in
Indonesia may explain the low pornography
distress showed by the majority of sample.
It is very possible that women who agree to
participate fully in this research are the
ones who no longer hold negative attitude
towards sexual discussion. Therefore, it
seems logical if they also showed positive
reactions
towards
their
husbands’
pornography use.
Third, we want to address three
variables
(perceived
frequency
of
husband’s pornography use, duration of
knowledge about husband’s pornography
use, and exposure to sexual content from
the media) which were expected to
contribute significantly to pornography
distress, but the research data failed to
confirm this hypothesis. There are several

14

KRISTANTI & DINASTUTI

possible explanations why the first variable
failed to show its contribution. Firstly, most
of data (44.72%) were skewed on the
lowest
frequency
(most
participants
perceived their husband pornography use
to be less than once a month). This
homogenous data might lower statistical
power of rejecting null hypothesis. Despite
this methodological limitation, it is possible
that this result reflected the real relationship
between perceived frequency of husband’s
pornography use and pornography distress,
that this variable was not a contributor to
pornography distress. In this case, the
heart of the problem may not lie on how
frequent the pornography use is, it is
actually about the honesty of partners in
disclosing their habits. This notion is
supported by one of this research finding
that the way of finding out about husband’s
pornography use significantly contributed to
participants’
pornography
distress,
especially if this revelation came from
catching husbands’ act firsthand or finding
proof of their husbands’ behavior. Hence, it
is possible that the perceived frequency of
pornography use doesn’t play a significant
role in building the problem, as long as the
husbands are not being secretive about
their usage.
The reason why the second variable
(duration of knowledge about husband’s
pornography use) did not show significant
contribution might also be due to the
skewed data (most participants had just
found
out
about
their
husbands’
pornography use) and this condition might
also lower the statistical power of rejecting
null hypothesis. The second possibility is
related to memory bias. Asking about when

approximately did the participants find out
about their husbands’ pornography use
might force participants to retrieve old
memories (almost half of the participants
have been married for 15 years).
Participants’ limitation on remembering
such information might produce inaccurate
data.
There might also another interesting
way to interpret this particular finding. The
reason why this variable was included in
this research model and became subject to
be hypothetically tested was the notion
from W. Maltz and Maltz (2009) about
stages that women experienced while
discovering
about
their
partners’
pornography use. We translated these
stages to the variable of duration. The idea
was: if stages were seen as a reflection of
women’s acceptance from time to time,
then their duration of knowing about their
husbands’ pornography use would also
play part on their experience of
pornography distress. However, this
research finding raised the need of
revisiting this translation. It is possible that
each woman goes through these stages
differently: there might be women who
quickly moved between stages, but there
might also be women who need longer time
to move between stages. Therefore, their
duration of knowing their husbands’
pornography use does not always reflect
their current and advanced stages.
The last variable to be discussed is
exposure to sexual content from the media.
This variable’s failure to show significant
contribution might be explained by its
measurement method. As explained
before, this variable was measured by

PORNOGRAPHY DISTRESS

asking the participants to judge the degree
of sexual content contained in their each of
media consumption. This self-report
method was actually supported by Bleakley
et al. (2008), as the impact that a sexual
media has on an individual is determined
largely by how he/she perceived it rather
than the actual content it has. However,
there is a possibility that participants who
frequently exposed to sexual contents had
actually get used to the exposure and
experience less awareness on what they
receive. Without this awareness, the
subjective report would no longer give an
accurate
description
on
what
the
participants actually perceived. Therefore,
we suggest that future researcher may
consider using judges in determining the
degree of sexual content.
To end this discussion, we would like to
address one more important thing that the
readers should keep in mind related to the
interpretation of research findings. This
research was designed from women’s point
of view to capture the overall trend of
pornography distress in Indonesia. While
the research had been successful on its
part, it had only covered one side of the
story. Therefore, it is strongly suggested
that future researcher would address this
issue from the husband or couple’s
perspective and also make use of
qualitative designs to get more in-depth
data.

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