Male porn habits could fuel eating disorder symptoms in female partners

'Little research has been done to determine how a partner's influence might contribute to a woman's disordered eating'

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Women whose male partners watch pornography on a regular basis are more likely to report symptoms of an eating disorder, a new study claims.

Published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders, the research also identified strong links between women whose partners watch porn and feelings of guilt about eating and preoccupations with body fat.

The study was led by researchers at Ohio State University and is one of the first to look at the links between how a person’s porn habits might affect their romantic partner, psychologically speaking.

More than 400 American women were examined in the study, all of whom were in relationships with men at the time and were asked to answer a questionnaire that enabled researchers to identify symptoms of eating disorders.

They were also asked to tell researchers how much pressure they felt to be thin as imposed by the media, friends and family in addition to reporting how many hours of porn their current partner viewed each week.

After an analysis of the results, the researchers concluded that there was a clear association between eating disorder symptoms and porn usage.

A link was also identified between eating disorder symptoms and those who felt a pressure to be thin.

The average age of participants was 34 and they were from a wide range of social backgrounds, according to Tracy Tylka, the study’s lead author and psychology professor at Ohio State University.

Tykla explains that women whose partners watch porn may feel more pressured to aspire to have the unrealistic body types often seen in porn and compare their own bodies to those featured.

In some cases, she adds, it might make women “feel sexless because their partners are spending time with porn instead of connecting with them”.

She also said that the links between porn usage and a partner’s disordered eating habits were stronger in older women than those in their late teens/early 20s.

“That could be because these women have had more relationship experiences, and these experiences have shaped their relationships with food and their perceptions of their bodies.”

As the study did not look at the possible difference between women who view porn with their partners and those whose partners view porn alone, Tykla said that more research is needed in order to strengthen the findings.