The French version of the Problematic Pornography Consumption Scale-18 (Fr-PPCS-18): Translation and exploratory study

Résumé 0

Introduction and aims: While most pornography users use porn for recreational and pleasure purposes, with no associated psychosexological consequences, between 3 and 15 percent of users may develop what the literature identifies as “Problematic Pornography Use” (PPU). Detecting PPU is complex and requires the clinician to be able to adequately discriminate between recreational and problematic use. Standardized assessment tools allow for the targeted and objective detection of PPU, avoiding the interference of ideological or cultural biases. However, no French-language assessment scale for PPU exists to date. Thus, the aim of this study is, on the one hand, to explore the psychometric properties of the French version of the Problematic Pornography Consumption Scale-18 (PPCS-18) and, on the other hand, to verify its convergent validity with s-IAT-sexe, a French scale for the assessment of cybersex addiction (Wéry et al., 2016), enabling an exploration of the addictive conceptualization of PPU. Method. The PPCS-18 was subject to a rigorous four-step translation–backtranslation procedure. Next, 1,001 individuals aged eighteen to thirty-five years from the general French population completed an online protocol containing the French version of the PPCS-18 (Fr-PPCS-18), the s-IAT-sex scale exploring cybersexual addiction, and a sociodemographic questionnaire. The Ethic Committee of the Université Paris Cité approved the study. Results The overall reliability of the Fr-PPCS-18 is excellent (α = .93; ω = .96). The correlation between the Fr-PPCS-18 and s-IAT-sex scales is positive, high, and significant (r = 0.79; p