The Moderating Role of Regular Exercise on the Relationship Between Basic Psychological Need Frustration and Problematic Pornography Use: Two Pathways Corroborated by Two Complementary Methods

Self-Determination Theory helps explain why individuals may use pornography to cope with stress, negative emotions, or boredom, potentially leading to problematic use. This study also examined whether regular physical exercise mitigates this. A total of 600 Chinese adult pornography users (Mage = 32.31, 39.83% women) were recruited. Findings revealed that coping motivations of pornography use worked as a mediator between basic psychological need frustration and problematic pornography use. Crucially, regular exercise significantly moderated these links: exercisers showed a weaker connection from needs frustration to coping motivations but a stronger connection from coping motivations to problematic use. Network analysis further clarified the specific roles of relatedness frustration and boredom avoidance in the first pathway, and stress reduction motivation in the second. While exercise demonstrates protective potential by attenuating the impact of need frustration on coping motivations, this cross-sectional study design precludes causal inferences.