Relationship Context, Body-Esteem, Religiosity, and Sexual Experience: Associations with Well-Being and Relationship Status

Abstract

In this study we explored why there are sometimes conflicting findings regarding the influence of past sexual experience on relationships. Consequently, we studied the effects of body-esteem and religiosity on sexual experience in two relational contexts (casual or committed relationships) and how all of these variables were associated with life satisfaction, and the likelihood that a person would be married by their early thirties. With a national sample of 4966 participants, our results indicated that sexual experiences in casual relationships had negative associations with life satisfaction and relationship status, whereas sexual experiences in committed relationships had positive associations.

Keywords:

• Relationship context
• body-esteem
• religiosity
• sexuality
• relationship status

Notes

1 The factor loading of .35 came from the body esteem item “I worry about the way I look” (reverse coded). We understand that this loading is not ideal, but we decided to retain the item because it is an item from the extensively used body-esteem scale. Considering the strength of the overall model, we decided it was worth retaining. However, this matter should be looked into more carefully in future research, as this item does not appear to work as well for men as for women. In supplementary analyses, we found that the inclusion or exclusion of the item did not make any significant changes to the results (full results available upon request).