Romantic Attachment, Sex Motives and Sexual Difficulties in Emerging Adults: The Role of Childhood Interpersonal Victimization

ABSTRACT

A growing body of research has revealed that many emerging adults (i.e., aged 18 to 25) experience sexual difficulties. Past studies have emphasized the need to examine sexual difficulties by accounting for sex motives (i.e., reasons for engaging in sex) and by using a trauma-focused or attachment-based framework. This study examined the role of sex motives in the associations among attachment insecurities (anxiety, avoidance) and sexual difficulties in emerging adults, and assessed whether these links varied on the basis of low or high exposure to childhood interpersonal victimization (CIV) (i.e., 0–3 different types of CIV or 4 or more types of CIV). A sample of 437 French-Canadian emerging adults completed validated questionnaires online. Path analyses revealed that participants with higher attachment anxiety were more likely to endorse the partner approval sex motive, which was related to more sexual difficulties. Participants with higher attachment avoidance were less likely to endorse the pleasure sex motive, which was associated with more sexual difficulties. Results indicated a significant effect of CIV showing that some indirect effects were significant only in participants who reported high CIV exposure. Results suggest that addressing sex motives using an attachment- and trauma-focused framework might help understand, prevent and treat sexual difficulties among emerging adults.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2022.2141676

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Fonds de recherche du Québec - Société et Culture.