Associations between Affect, Context, and Sexual Desire in Depressed Young Women

Abstract

We investigated associations of sexual desire with time of day, physical and social context, and positive and negative affect using momentary sampling in 44 depressed young women (mean age = 18). Analyses revealed that depressed young women experienced sexual desire when with their boyfriends and later in the evening. Sexual desire was also positively associated with positive affect. Sexual desire was not associated with negative affect or physical context. This research suggests that sexual desire is experienced by depressed young women in normative developmental social contexts. Our findings may help clinicians and sexual health educators in correcting the myth that depressed women do not have sexual desire.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a research grant from the Aerosmith Endowment Fund, Children's Hospital Boston. The authors thank Lisa Sunner, Lauren Ebe, Shimrit Koren, Christopher Lops, and Ashley Kendall for their assistance in conducting the study.

An earlier version of this article was presented in part at the meeting of the Association for Psychological Science in Washington, DC, 2011.

Notes

Note. N = 2,037 momentary reports. Predictors entered individually in bivariate models. All variables entered simultaneously in multivariate model. All models controlled for age and day of the week.

Note. N = 2,037 momentary reports. All models controlled for age and day of the week.

*p < .05. **p < .01.