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Abstract
Although some studies have reported substantial correlations between clinical depression and hypoactive sexual desire, thus far only a few studies have addressed the association between depressed mood and different facets of sexuality (such as sexual satisfaction, sexual activity and level of sexual problems) in close relationships. This study sought to fill this gap by examining 198 couples recruited through advertisement. The associations between depressed mood measured by the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and sexuality within one person (actor effects) and between partners (partner effects) were analyzed using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model by Kenny and Cook (1999). Our findings show that actor effects of the BDI score on sexual experiences are somewhat higher than partner effects, and that depressed mood is mainly associated with one's own hyposexual desire, sexual aversion and sexual arousal problems. However, there were no substantial partner effects between depressed mood and sexual arousal problems.
