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The growing consumption of pornography among today’s youth has become a cause of concern for most parents, especially when obscene material can be accessed with just one click of a button.
Well, it seems there is something that can help stem that consumption: going to church.
According a five-year study on pornography viewing among adolescents and young adults, attending church services significantly lowers porn use among youth, both male and female.
“Pornography consumption is weaker at higher levels of religious attendance, particularly among boys, and religious attendance also weakens age-based increases in pornography consumption for both boys and girls,” the study, published in the June issue of the “Journal of Adolescence,” stated.
The research, entitled “How Does Religious Attendance Shape Trajectories of Pornography Use Across Adolescence?,” also showed that while pornography use generally increases across adolescence into young adulthood, “immersion in a religious community can help weaken these increases.”
In an article on Life Site News, the study’s lead author, University of Calgary Ph.D student Kyler Rasmussen, said that his research affirms the importance of religion among the youth.
“We can see that religious attendance is a factor in shaping the trajectories of pornography viewing in adolescents. … Some might see it as a vindication of the role of religion, in that it can shape the behavior of young adolescents in a positive way,” Rasmussen said.
Study co-author Alex Bierman, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Calgary, meanwhile gave possible explanations as to why church-going adolescents tend to watch pornographic materials less.
“People in religious communities learn that there are expected patterns of behavior… It may be the notion of a divine significant other who watches over them, and there may also be a social support component…within a moral community,” Bierman also told Life Site News.
