Distress, Need for Help, and Positive Feelings Derived from Participation in Sex Research: Findings of a Population Study in the Netherlands

Abstract

To inform cost-benefit analyses of potential harms and benefits for participants in sex research, the current study investigated potential effects of completing a self-report sex survey. The data stem from a sexual health study in a population sample in the Netherlands (N = 8,064; 15 to 70 years old). Three measures assessed potential effects of participation: distress, need for help, and positive feelings related to research participation. Analyses showed that levels of experienced distress and need for help resulting from participation in a self-report sex survey were low, while participants reported positive feelings to a considerable extent. Only few participants reported levels of positive experiences that were lower than the levels of distress (4.8%) or need for help (1.7%) they experienced. Although differences were found according to sociodemographic characteristics and sexual experiences, the proportion of variance explained by these variables was generally small. While the findings of this study show that the balance between potential harm and positive outcomes seems disturbed for few participants, researchers should provide participants with the details of care providers in case they experience any distress or need for help.

Acknowledgments

The study was partly funded by the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Sports.

Notes

Note. Coding of the sociodemographic characteristics: age (in years); gender (0 = man, 1 = woman); education (0 = lower; 1 = higher); ethnicity (0 = Dutch/Western, 1 = non-Western); religion (0 = nonreligious, 1 = religious); sexual orientation (0 = attracted only to opposite-sex partners, 1 = [also] attracted to same-sex partners).

**p < .01. *** p < .001; two-tailed.

Note. All analyses were controlled for age, gender, education, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation. Separate analyses were run for each sexual experience measure. The analyses regarding Experience with sex were also run with more fine-grained measures (any experience with sex, experience with vaginal intercourse, experience with anal intercourse), as were the analyses pertaining to Experience with sexual dysfunction (experience with problems related to subjective arousal, to sexual aversion, to lubrication, to erectile difficulties, to orgasm, to premature orgasm, and to dyspareunia). No major differences were found. Therefore, overall measures are presented for reasons of enhanced simplicity and clarity.

^a Sexual measures were coded as 0 = no experience, 1 = experience with specific behavior/problem.

^b Only participants 18 years or older with sexual experience in the past six months were included.

^c Only women with experience with heterosexual sexual intercourse were included.

**p < .01. ***p < .001; two-tailed.