Women’s Orgasm and Sexual Satisfaction in Committed Sex and Casual Sex: Relationship Between Sociosexuality and Sexual Outcomes in Different Sexual Contexts

Abstract

Previous studies have found that women report more orgasm and sexual satisfaction from sex in committed relationships than from casual sex. We examined whether sociosexual orientation was associated with these differences, and explored the links between sociosexuality and sexual outcomes in these two sexual relationship contexts. Sexually active women (n = 1,084) completed an online survey measuring sociosexual orientation, orgasmic function, and sexual satisfaction. Participants reported sexual outcomes (orgasmic function and sexual satisfaction) with respect to their sexual activity over the past 12 months in a casual context (if applicable), and separately in a committed context (if applicable). Among women who had both casual and committed sex in the past year, orgasmic function and sexual satisfaction differed between these two relationship contexts only for more sexually restricted women (lower sociosexuality). In the full sample, higher sociosexuality was associated with higher orgasmic function in casual sex and with lower sexual satisfaction in committed sex. These findings underscore the importance of examining interactions between individual differences and contextual factors when studying women’s sexual outcomes.

Notes

¹ We use the term “sexual outcomes” to refer to sexual satisfaction and orgasmic function, as defined in the Method section.

² We recruited participants “for an online study regarding women’s sexual experience and relationships” from the sub-Reddit sites named “r/sex,” “r/SampleSize, “r/scientificresearch,” and “r/UndergraduateResearch” and through Facebook advertisements targeting women in the U.S. Potential participants could read the eligibility criteria before clicking the study link. Sample size was not determined a priori.

³ We used the word “sex” instead of “sexual intercourse” as used in the original scale because this study included a wider range of sexual activities rather than just sexual intercourse.

⁴ One of the SOI behavior items asks how many different sexual partners one had in the past 12 months. At first glance, this may seem to be conceptually similar to our dependent variables (sexual outcomes in the past 12 months). However, the SOI item measures number of sexual partners one had in the past 12 months, whereas our dependent variables are ratings of orgasmic function and sexual satisfaction in the past 12 months.

⁵ We asked participants about their orgasmic function “over the past 12 months” instead of “over the past four weeks” as used in the original scale, to match the time frame used in this study.