Shame as a moderator of attachment and sexual satisfaction

ABSTRACT

Shame is an intensely painful emotion that adversely impacts mental health and social relationships. Although shame proneness is associated with insecure attachment and sexual satisfaction, independently, no research has examined how shame proneness relates to both of these constructs simultaneously. Such an investigation is necessary due to pervasive cultural messaging that intertwines shame, attachment, and sexuality. The present study addressed this gap in the literature through testing a moderated mediation model with an online sample of 384 American adults. Results indicate that sexual self-esteem mediated the relationship between insecure attachment style and sexual satisfaction among the present sample. Shame proneness moderated the relationship between avoidant attachment and sexual satisfaction. These findings provide implications for relationship and sex therapists working with clients impacted by shame.

KEYWORDS:

• Attachment
• shame
• sexual self-esteem
• sexual satisfaction

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ball State University.