An Exploratory Network Analysis of Sexual and Relationship Satisfaction Comparing Partnered Cisgendered Men and Women

Abstract

Background: Sexual and relationship satisfaction are intimately connected and share many predictors.

Aim: The aim of the present study is to disentangle the relationship between sexual and relationship satisfaction, by exploring the connections to other relevant correlates.

Methods: Regularized mixed graphical model networks were estimated separately for men and women, which were compared using the network comparison test. In addition, strength centrality and community structure were explored.

Outcome: The partial correlation structure between sexual satisfaction, relationship satisfaction and their correlates.

Results: The associations between variables measuring sexual and relationship satisfaction and related constructs did not differ significantly between partnered, cisgendered men and women. Sexual and relationship satisfaction were associated with sexual pleasure, sexual distress, and sexual communication for both men and women. Sexual satisfaction was the most central variable in the network for men (strength = 1.1), while sexual desire was the most central variable for women (strength = 1.1). Frequency of sexual activity was a central variable for both men and women (strength men = 1.0, strength women = 1.1). The community analysis showed similar communities of variables for men and women, except that frequency of sexual activity consistently belonged to the same community as sexual and relationship satisfaction for men, but not as consistently for women.

Clinical translation: The results have clinical implication in sex and couples therapy, as they increase the knowledge on sexual and relationship satisfaction.

Strengths & limitations: A strength of the study is the population-based dataset, and a limitation is that inferences of causality cannot be made due to the cross-sectional study design.

Conclusion: The present study suggests that men and women are largely similar when comparing constructs related to sexual and relationship satisfaction. Nickull S, Källström M, Jern P. An Exploratory Network Analysis of Sexual and Relationship Satisfaction Comparing Partnered Cisgendered Men and Women. J Sex Med 2022;19:711-718.

Keywords: Network Analysis; Relationship Satisfaction; Sex Difference; Sexual Satisfaction.