The moderating function of religious belief on the association between sexual dysfunctions and sexual satisfaction among religious Jewish women and men

ABSTRACT

The moderating effect of religiousness on the associations between health-associated stressors and well-being is well established in the research literature but has not been examined on the association between sexual dysfunctions and sexual well-being. A sample of adult Jewish women (N = 207) and men (N = 196) responded to an online questionnaire including measures of religious belief and sexual satisfaction. Respondents’ partners assessed sexual desire dysfunction and psychological sexual arousal dysfunction of the respondent. For men and women, desire dysfunction was associated with lower levels of sexual satisfaction. Arousal dysfunction was also associated with sexual satisfaction for women but not for men. In addition, for women, a significant buffering effect of religiousness was found for the associations of both types of sexual dysfunction and sexual satisfaction. In contrast, for men, no buffering effect was found.

KEYWORDS:

• Religious belief
• sexual dysfunctions
• sexual satisfaction
• Judaism

Data availability statement

Data available on request from the author.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).