Sexual Self-Schemas and Sexual Satisfaction in Romantic Relationships

Abstract

The aim of the present research was to investigate the association between how individuals in romantic relationships conceptualize themselves sexually, and levels of reported sexual satisfaction for both themselves and their partner. Of additional interest was how an individual’s sexual self-schemas are associated with their perception of their partner’s sexual satisfaction. Reasoning that sexual self-schemas will have an influence on how individuals interpret and act in sexual situations, we propose that individuals’ sexual self-schemas will play a role in sexual satisfaction within relationships. We additionally examined whether sexual self-schemas influenced an individual’s perceptions of their partner after controlling for that partner’s reported levels of satisfaction. For both men and women, individual’s own sexual self-schemas were associated with own sexual satisfaction, but not partner’s sexual satisfaction. Additionally, individual’s own sexual self-schemas were associated with perceptions of partner’s sexual satisfaction, even after controlling for that partner’s self-reported sexual satisfaction.