Is Expectant Couples’ Similarity in Attitudes to Sex during Pregnancy Linked to Their Sexual Well-being? A Dyadic Study with Response Surface Analysis

ABSTRACT

Despite sexual activity being safe for the majority of expectant couples (i.e., the pregnant individual and their partner), negative attitudes toward having sex during pregnancy are common and are related to lower sexual well-being across this vulnerable life period. Using dyadic response surface analysis in a sample of 254 first-time expectant couples, we examined the degree to which expectant partners demonstrated similar versus dissimilar attitudes to sex during pregnancy and whether specific patterns of couples’ similarity in attitudes may uniquely contribute to their sexual satisfaction and sexual distress. Couples’ more positive attitudes (i.e., the more both partners perceived sexual activity as non-threatening to their pregnancy), rather than partners’ similarity in attitudes, were associated with lower sexual distress for both partners and higher sexual satisfaction for male partners. In couples where partners held more dissimilar attitudes, men demonstrated greater distress when their female partner’s attitudes were more positive than their own. To promote sexual well-being during pregnancy, interventions should assist couples to attain stronger positive attitudes to sex during pregnancy by targeting concerns about sex in both expectant partners.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Centro Materno Infantil do Norte for their collaboration in recruiting participants for this study and to all the couples who generously participated in this research.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ No participants identified as gay/lesbian, and all were currently in a mixed-gender/sex relationship. For this reason, we do not refer to participants collectively as heterosexual but describe couples as being in mixed-gender/sex relationships.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the COMPETE 2020 program [CPUP UIDB/00050/2020, POCI-01-0145-FEDER-0072]. IT is supported by a grant from FCT [SFRH/BD/131808/2017].