• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.465-476
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• 2021

This study considers both causal and control factors for explaining both contact and distribution of sexually explicit material and tests their interaction effects for examining buffering effects of control factors in causal process. This study examines the effect of low self-control, differential association with peers and patriarchy family environmental factor as causal factors. It also considers three control factors such as morality. legal punishment, and lack of opportunity and test interaction effect between causal and control factors in both contact and distribution cases. Using data from college students in Seoul, results show that the effects of all causal factors are significant in both contact and distribution of sexually explicit material and the effect of differential association is the most significant. However, their interaction effects between causal and control factors are different across contact and distribution cases. In the contact case, all interaction effects are not significant. It means that causal factors have independent effects and control factors have no buffering effects. However, in the distribution case, the interaction effects between low self-control and morality, between differential association and morality, between patriarchy family and punishment, and between patriarchy family and lack of opportunity are significant. Empirical implications are discussed.