Which Came First, the Money or the Sex? Bidirectional, Indirect Associations between Financial Management Behaviors and Sexual Satisfaction among Newlywed Couples

ABSTRACT

Scholars have established connections between how married couples navigate their finances and their sexual relationship. For example, financial management behaviors are associated with sexual satisfaction among newlywed couples. However, we know very little about the direction of the association between financial management behaviors and sexual satisfaction. Understanding which might predict the other, or if there might be a bidirectional association between the two, could provide information on where to intervene to help newlywed couples with financial or sexual obstacles in their marriage. With three waves of dyadic data (N = 1,205 U.S. newlywed couples), we used structural equation modeling to examine the bidirectional, indirect associations between husbands’ and wives’ financial management behaviors and their own sexual satisfaction through their own marital satisfaction. Overall, we found that financial management behaviors indirectly predicted changes in sexual satisfaction through marital satisfaction for both husbands and wives. We also found limited evidence that husbands’ sexual satisfaction indirectly predicted changes in their own financial management behaviors through their own marital satisfaction. Additionally, these indirect associations differed by gender. Partner effects, however, were largely non-significant. Implications of these findings for those who help newlywed couples with their sexual relationships are discussed.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data Availability Statement

The data used in this study are not available for open download because the participants have not provided such consent. The analysis code/syntax, however, can be obtained from the first author.

Supplementary Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2023.2206818

Additional information

Funding

There is no external funding to report for this manuscript.