Compulsive sexual behavior (CSB) is common among people with substance use disorders (SUDs) and these behaviors may mutually reinforce each other. Thus, research into risk factors for CSB in this population could inform interventions that reduce CSB and stifle this reinforcement pattern. People with SUDs report high rates of childhood abuse and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, which are also empirically supported risk factors for CSB. We examined the moderating effect of PTSD symptoms on the associations between forms of childhood abuse (i.e., physical, sexual, emotional) and CSB among 707 patients in residential treatment for SUDs (Mage = 40.8 years, SD = 12.1; 73.6% men). PTSD symptoms moderated the association between childhood sexual abuse, but not other forms of childhood abuse, and CSB. Childhood sexual abuse was positively related to CSB at high, but not low or mean levels of PTSD symptoms. Childhood emotional abuse was also related to CSB, whereas childhood physical abuse was not significantly related to CSB. Findings indicate that PTSD symptoms could exacerbate the association between childhood sexual abuse and CSB. Future applied studies might consider exploring whether trauma-focused interventions can reduce CSB in patients with SUDs who are survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

The visibility and presence of people who have detransitioned following a gender transition is growing, with an increase in research on the needs and experiences of this group. This study presents a thematic narrative analysis of interviews from six females (M = 25.5 yrs; range = 21–32 yrs). All detransitioned after having at least one gender-affirming medical or surgical treatment as part of a gender transition in the UK. Four narrative themes were developed to capture how they made sense of their detransition: (1) the limits of medical transition, (2) the longer-term health implications, (3) the social limits of transition, and (4) detransition as an ongoing process. Participants discussed a range of emotional, practical, and other support needs, largely unmet by healthcare or other services. These findings highlight the importance of ensuring that people have realistic expectations of transition as part of a holistic assessment process. Long-term health outcome research is also needed, addressing the impact of testosterone on female anatomy and health specifically. Further clinical implications with those considering transition or detransition are discussed.

The current study tested a model in which three body image factors were assumed to be associated with adolescents’ sexting (sending nude or semi-nude pictures and/or video clips) to either romantic partners or strangers. We hypothesized that lower appearance esteem, more body surveillance, and more dysfunctional appearance beliefs would be associated with a higher likelihood of sexting. We also examined the effects of pubertal timing in the model, along with assessing the moderating effect of gender on the pathways to sexting. A questionnaire study was conducted with 1543 adolescents (girls = 791, 50.7%; boys = 772, 49.3%), ages between 13 and 16 years. The results from structural equation modeling indicated that girls’ and boys’ dysfunctional appearance beliefs were most consistently associated with sexting with romantic partners and strangers. Body surveillance also predicted sexting with strangers, but only for boys. Contrary to our hypotheses, appearance esteem was not significantly associated with sexting. Early-maturing girls and boys were more likely to sext with either partner. Girls reporting earlier pubertal timing were more likely to sext with romantic partners via the mediation of appearance beliefs. The findings from this study provide novel evidence of the complex interplay between body image and adolescents’ sexting, emphasizing that, in general, dysfunctional appearance beliefs seem to be more important for adolescents’ sexting compared to body surveillance and appearance esteem.

Fueled by advances in artificial intelligence (AI), the adult entertainment industry is undergoing a significant transformation. AI-generated pornography-or AI porn-is reshaping how people create and consume sexually explicit content, progressively offering rapid, mass access to large quantities of interactive and highly customizable experiences. Yet, despite its accelerated growth and potential implications for human eroticism, the current state of AI porn remains underexplored. Using a qualitative inductive content analysis, this study examined the functionalities, production strategies, and customization options available on websites allowing AI porn generation (n = 36). All websites included an English language option, which was used for this analysis. Following systematic open coding, categorization, and inter-rater validation, the prevalence of each category was quantified across website data. Results suggest that most sites presently enable image generation (80.6%), with others allowing video generation (41.7%), content alteration (e.g., deepnude, upscaling, facemorphing; 2.8-55.6%), and interactions with artificial agents (44.4%). AI porn generation also predominantly relies on feature selection (97.2%) and/or prompting (72.2%) to customize content elements, including character bases (e.g., human, fictional; 11.1-94.4%), sociodemographic characteristics (27.8-86.1%), body features (72.2%), clothing (75.0%), as well as foundational (resolution, theme, point-of-view; 22.2-69.4%) and contextual aspects (e.g., weather, setting, lighting; 11.1-63.9%). Carrying significant social and ethical implications, these findings point to a gradual evolution toward an AI-driven porn landscape where individuals can create and interact with sexual content tailored to their preferences and fantasies.

People of diverse backgrounds and identities report experiencing attraction to the energy, multidimensionality, and power created by people in relationships (Johnston, 2024a). Due to cultural privileging of monosexuality and monogamy, and stigma specifically within polyamory communities against people interested in sex and relationships with couples, very little is known about this population. Lack of recognition and validation negatively impacts those who experience this attraction, known as symbiosexual attraction (Johnston & Schoenfeld, 2021). I conducted a mixed-methods analysis of secondary data from The Pleasure Study (Harvey et al., 2023) to investigate the sexual and romantic experiences of this population. I found that people who experience symbiosexual attraction engage in a variety non-monogamous, multi-person sexual and relationship dynamics. Those who engage in these dynamics specifically with couples report a variety of unique and heightened experiences, both gratifying and undesirable. These findings fill a gap in the literature on this largely unexamined population and challenge the stigma in the polyamorous community as well as within our broader mononormative culture against sex and relationships with established couples which may be preventing people from engaging in ways that best align with their desires and center their pleasure.

Pornography is one of the most popular forms of media and pornography research is common in high impact sexological journals. Many studies on U.S. adults' pornography consumption have utilized the National Science Foundation funded General Social Survey (GSS), which has provided nationally representative publicly available data since the early 1970s; however, there are multiple reasons to question the validity and predictive capacity of the GSS's traditional pornography measure. The present study compared the traditional GSS pornography measure with a new, experimental GSS pornography measure following the methodology of an early study of adult U.S. women's pornography use published in this journal. The results supported the validity and predictive capacity of the traditional GSS measure while simultaneously suggesting the superiority of the GSS's new measure. Implications for the GSS and pornography measurement beyond the GSS are discussed.

Positive stereotypes may elicit targets' negative reactions, but it is not well understood whether targets react differently to various levels of such stereotypes. Two studies examined targets' negative reactions to various levels of positive gender stereotypes. Chinese students were recruited as participants (N = 1204), who were randomly assigned to the somewhat, moderately, or extremely positive gender stereotype conditions or the control condition. Reactions to positive gender stereotypes were then measured. Results showed that both female and male participants who were exposed to positive gender stereotypes disliked the speaker stating such stereotypes more, experienced greater negative emotions, and perceived the speaker as more gender-prejudiced than those who were not exposed to such stereotypes. These negative reactions were more pronounced in female participants than in male participants. Furthermore, participants' negative reactions to different levels of positive gender stereotypes were similar, regardless of whether the stereotypes were somewhat, moderately, or extremely positive. These negative reactions elicited by positive gender stereotypes were mediated by both a sense of depersonalization and a sense of diminished autonomy. This research indicates positive gender stereotypes are like "sugar-coated bullets," appearing harmless ostensibly. However, even somewhat positive gender stereotypes may elicit targets' negative reactions, impairing interpersonal relations and perpetuating gender inequality under the radar.

Autogynephilia is a natal male's propensity to be sexually aroused by the thought or fantasy of being a woman. Both male cross-dressers and transfeminine individuals (a broad range of individuals born male with a feminine gender identity; e.g., trans women) have been shown to be motivated or characterized by autogynephilia. Although there is a lack of research on whether other potentially related aspects of sexuality are comparable between them, the conceptual framework of autogynephilia offers several predictions that can be tested empirically. Following these predictions, the present study examined whether 10 diverse aspects of sexuality differed between 519 male cross-dressers and 288 transfeminine individuals recruited from online communities, as well as between both groups and 293 cisgender men and 301 cisgender women recruited as control groups. The overwhelming majority of male cross-dresser and transfeminine participants identified as heterosexual, bisexual, asexual, or pansexual. Compared with transfeminine participants, male cross-dressers reported more core and general autogynephilia, paraphilic interests, sociosexual orientation, sexual compulsivity, and problematic pornography use, but less bisexual attraction. Compared with cisgender men and women, male cross-dressers and transfeminine participants as a combined sample reported more bisexual attraction, sexual orientation ambiguity, core and general autogynephilia, paraphilic interests, analloeroticism, sexual compulsivity, and problematic pornography use, but less perceived desirability as a partner. Differences were larger comparing male cross-dressers and transfeminine participants with either control group than with each other. Results suggest that while autogynephilia is especially important to the sexuality of male cross-dressers, it also figures importantly in the sexuality of transfeminine individuals, even if it is expressed and organized differently.

"Partner number sexuality" (P#S) refers to how many partners individuals have/are interested in having. Those with P#S outside of monogamous desires and/or practices commonly face stigma in North America and elsewhere. Yet theories of sexuality do not always make room for diverse P#S. One theory that does is sexual configurations theory (SCT), which visually models gender/sex and sexuality (van Anders, 2015). In this study, we investigated what insights SCT could provide into P#S, whether SCT was useful to those with minoritized P#S, and how those with minoritized P#S made use of SCT. To do so, we conducted online interviews, asking participants (N = 26) to complete two SCT diagrams and report on their experience. We used template analysis to analyze transcripts and compiled "SCT heatmaps," aggregates of SCT diagrams. We constructed 11 major themes, including diverse understandings of eroticism and romantic/platonic relationships, the impacts of hermeneutical injustice (the injustice of knowledge systems) on participants' abilities to conceptualize and discuss their P#S, and how SCT facilitated conversations about P#S. The heatmaps showed that participants made use of most of both SCT diagrams, showing branchedness in P#S between "eroticism" and "nurturance," and between status, identity, and orientation. Our study highlights that the lived experience of partnering, especially of those with minoritized P#S, extends far beyond commonly understood categories, and that SCT is a useful tool that can accurately reflect diversity in P#S.

We examined whether beliefs about autonomic arousal sensations and sexual sensation seeking explain some of the gender differences in self-reporting paraphilic sexual interests in 672 university students. A serial mediation model was used to test the direct association of gender and the indirect associations of positive interpretations of autonomic arousal sensations and sexual sensation seeking on paraphilic sexual interests. Anxiety sensitivity (e.g., the belief that anxiety sensations are dangerous) was included in the serial mediation model to evaluate the relationship between negative interpretations of autonomic arousal sensations and paraphilic interests. As predicted, men reported more paraphilic interests, sexual sensation seeking, positive beliefs about autonomic arousal sensations, and lower anxiety sensitivity than women. Participants' gender was indirectly related to paraphilic interests through positive beliefs about autonomic arousal sensations and sexual sensation seeking. Notably, positive interpretations of autonomic arousal sensations had a greater association with paraphilic sexual interests than anxiety sensitivity. When autonomic arousal sensations are interpreted positively, they may facilitate sexual sensation seeking, and people may endorse more paraphilic sexual interests. Future research on paraphilias should further examine positive interpretations of autonomic arousal sensations as they may relate to sexual sensation seeking and the endorsement of paraphilic interests.