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Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Mental Health

Date Submitted: Feb 1, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: Feb 1, 2018 - Jul 28, 2018
Date Accepted: Dec 12, 2018
(closed for review but you can still tweet)

The final, peer-reviewed published version of this preprint can be found here:

Sexual Desire, Mood, Attachment Style, Impulsivity, and Self-Esteem as Predictive Factors for Addictive Cybersex

Varfi N, Rothen S, Jasiowka K, Lepers T, Bianchi-Demicheli F, Khazaal Y

Sexual Desire, Mood, Attachment Style, Impulsivity, and Self-Esteem as Predictive Factors for Addictive Cybersex

JMIR Ment Health 2019;6(1):e9978

DOI: 10.2196/mental.9978

PMID: 30664470

PMCID: 6360388

Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.

Sexual Desire, Mood, Attachment Style, Impulsivity, and Self-Esteem as Predictive Factors for Addictive Cybersex

  • Nektaria Varfi; 
  • Stephane Rothen; 
  • Katarzyna Jasiowka; 
  • Thibault Lepers; 
  • Francesco Bianchi-Demicheli; 
  • Yasser Khazaal

Background:

An increasing number of studies are concerned with various aspects of cybersex addiction, the difficulty some persons have in limiting cybersex use despite a negative impact on everyday life.

Objective:

The aim of this study was to assess potential links between the outcome variable cybersex addiction, assessed with the Compulsive Internet Use Scale (CIUS) adapted for cybersex use, and several psychological and psychopathological factors, including sexual desire, mood, attachment style, impulsivity, and self-esteem, by taking into account the age, sex, and sexual orientation of cybersex users.

Methods:

A Web-based survey was conducted in which participants were assessed for sociodemographic variables and with the following instruments: CIUS adapted for cybersex use, Sexual Desire Inventory, and Short Depression-Happiness Scale. Moreover, attachment style was assessed with the Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised questionnaire (Anxiety and Avoidance subscales). Impulsivity was measured by using the Urgency, Premeditation (lack of), Perseverance (lack of), Sensation Seeking, Positive Urgency Impulsive Behavior Scale. Global self-esteem was assessed with the 1-item Self-Esteem Scale.

Results:

A sample of 145 subjects completed the study. Addictive cybersex use was associated with higher levels of sexual desire, depressive mood, avoidant attachment style, and male gender but not with impulsivity.

Conclusions:

Addictive cybersex use is a function of sexual desire, depressive mood, and avoidant attachment.


 Citation

Please cite as:

Varfi N, Rothen S, Jasiowka K, Lepers T, Bianchi-Demicheli F, Khazaal Y

Sexual Desire, Mood, Attachment Style, Impulsivity, and Self-Esteem as Predictive Factors for Addictive Cybersex

JMIR Ment Health 2019;6(1):e9978

DOI: 10.2196/mental.9978

PMID: 30664470

PMCID: 6360388

Per the author's request the PDF is not available.

© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.