Compulsive Sexual Behaviour vs Problematic Pornography Use: Converging Evidence of Distinct Constructs from GGM, EGA and Bayesian Networks

For some people, intense and repetitive sexual urges/behaviours can cause distress and impair functioning across other life domains. Problematic Pornography Use (PPU) is often considered the most common manifestation of Compulsive Sexual Behaviour Disorder (CSBD), yet their conceptual and diagnostic boundaries remain contested. This multi-method study examined whether CSBD and PPU reflect a shared syndrome or better represent distinct symptom structures. A community sample of adults from Australia and New Zealand (N = 632, Mage = 35.56, SD = 10.68, 58.5% women) completed the Compulsive Sexual Behaviour Disorder Scale (CSBD-19) and the Problematic Pornography Consumption Scale (PPCS). Complementary network and dimensional analyses were used to examine relationships and clustering among symptoms. Across analyses, CSBD and PPU demonstrated empirically separable networks, with minimal cross-construct connectivity. Dimensional analyses consistently identified symptom clusters composed exclusively of CSBD or PPCS items, even when accounting for gender or non-users of pornography. Symptom-level patterns suggested that reduced sexual satisfaction may represent a peripheral feature of CSBD, whereas mood modification and salience-related symptoms formed a stable cluster within PPU. These findings suggest that CSBD and PPU may represent related but distinct patterns of dysregulated sexual behaviour, and caution against treating PPU as a direct proxy for CSBD.