The Conditional Importance of Sex: Exploring the Association Between Sexual Well-Being and Life Satisfaction

Abstract

Leaders in the field of sexuality have called for additional research examining the link between sexual well-being and life satisfaction in women in order to expand knowledge regarding the important consequences of a satisfying sex life. Participants in the present study were sexually active women reporting a wide range of sexual difficulties who completed an in-person interview, validated self-report measures, and daily online assessments for 4 weeks. Sexual well-being was related to life satisfaction both cross-sectionally and within individuals over time. In addition, high relational satisfaction and low attachment anxiety served as protective factors, decreasing the degree to which unsatisfying sexual experiences were associated with decreases in life satisfaction. These results extend previous findings by confirming a strong association between sexual well-being and overall life satisfaction within individuals over time. The strength of this association is moderated by a number of intra- and interpersonal factors. Implications for healthcare providers are discussed.

Notes

We use the term sexual well-being in the present study as an umbrella term encompassing two types of subjective evaluations of one's sex life: sexual satisfaction and sexual distress. Sexual satisfaction has been defined as the individual's subjective evaluation of the positive and negative aspects of one's sexual relationship, and his/her subsequent affective response to this evaluation (Lawrance & Byers, 1992). Sexual distress refers to concern, anxiety, and/or frustration regarding one's sex life, a definition in line with that currently used in the field of female sexual dysfunction. Studies have suggested that sexual distress and satisfaction may be partially independent constructs (Stephenson & Meston, 2010a) and, as such, they are included as separate but related factors in the present research. We define the term life satisfaction as analogous to Pavot and Deiner's (2008) conceptualization of subjective well-being, which includes both a cognitive global evaluation of one's quality of life and affective components such as happiness and (a lack of) sadness and regret.

Diagnosis of both of these conditions requires a physical examination, which was beyond the scope of the present study. As such, these diagnoses should be considered very tentative.

We slightly modified these basic models in a number of ways. First, we used group-mean centering of independent variables, meaning that variations in sexual well-being were measured in relation to each individual's average level of sexual well-being. Second, we specified a continuous first-order autoregressive covariance structure, which is often appropriate when the multiple observations within individuals are not evenly spaced (as was the case in the current data set given that participants would occasionally skip days). Autoregressive coefficients (phi) were generally moderate (.36 to.43; possible range: –1 to 1) and the use of an autoregressive covariance structure resulted in lower Akaike information criterion values as compared to standard covariance structures, indicating improved model fit. Third, we controlled for a dichotomous variable indicating whether the participant engaged in sexual activity for each day to assure that we were examining the effects of sexual well-being in particular, not simply whether sexual activity took place.

Results for models using sexual distress as a predictor were similarly structured and produced almost identical results. As such, tables are not included in the interest of conciseness. Please contact the corresponding authors for full models.

Upon completion of the study, participants were provided with information regarding sexual health care providers in the local community. At this point, many participants noted that they had not previously been aware of either the existence or availability of treatment for their sexual difficulties. As such, it is likely that many women in this sample had not previously sought out treatment simply because a lack of knowledge, rather than other factors such as fear or lack of motivation. However, as we did not explicitly assess motivation for treatment in this study, this conclusion should be considered very tentative.