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Article Excerpt
A happy marriage often is associated with satisfying sexual activity (Greeley, 1991; Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, & Michaels, 1994). Prior studies on marital sexuality consistently have found that frequency with which a married couple engages in sex with each other is related to marital sexual satisfaction (e.g., Call, Sprecher, & Schwartz, 1995; Haavio-Mannila & Kontula, 1997). Attempting to disentangle the causal relationship between frequency of sex and marital sexual satisfaction however, could prove to be problematic. The couples could be more sexually satisfied simply because they had sex more frequently or they also could tell us that the couples who had sex less frequently did so because it tended to be somehow less pleasurable and satisfying for them (Harvey, Wenzel, & Sprecher, 2004).
Hence, although frequency of sex and sexual satisfaction are closely related, one cannot automatically assume that the two are the same. Frequency of engagement in sexual activity is a physical or factual measure of behavior, while marital sexual satisfaction is a psychological or subjective measure of perception. For these reasons, in the present study we considered sexual satisfaction and frequency of sex to be two correlated, but distinct, variables.
There have been quite a number of studies in Western societies about the causes and consequences of sexual satisfaction in marriage. Little is known about the predictors of marital sexual relationships in Chinese societies (cf. So & Cheung, 2005). By using a large community data set from the Family Planning Association of Hong Kong (FPAHK, 2003) in 2002, we set our research objective to investigate whether the predictors found in Western societies also are applicable in a Chinese society. The data set contains 1,124 pairs of couples (as opposed to unrelated men and women in most studies). The present study addresses whether the predictors of sexual satisfaction are the same for wives and husbands. This gives us a better understanding of what predicts sexual satisfaction within marriage.
In the following sections, we first review factors associated with sexual satisfaction and the frequency of sex in marriages. We then propose a structural equation model (SEM) to test the research hypotheses. The methods and data used in the present study then are introduced. A discussion of the findings and their implications will be addressed.
Factors Associated With Sexual Satisfaction and Frequency of Sex
In this session, we review the factors associated with marital sexual satisfaction or frequency of sex or both. The variables can be grouped as sociodemographic variables, family variables, medical history related to sex, and the psychological variables. Sexual satisfaction usually has been found to be related to the physical aspects of sexuality such as frequency of sexual behavior and the timing of orgasms (Call et al., 1995; Donnelly, 1993; Marsiglio & Donnelly, 1991); to psychological factors involving the couple such as a woman's perspective of how close she is to her partner (Byers & Demmons, 1999; Young, Denny, Luquis, & Young, 1998); to socioeconomic factors such as socioeconomic status and family income (Perrone & Worthington, 2001); and to demographic factors such as age at marriage, educational level, number of children, religiosity, gender, and ethnicity (Call et al., 1995; Whyte, 1990).
Sociodemographic variables. In Western societies, age frequently has been found to be negatively correlated with sexual satisfaction (e.g., Chevret, Jaudinot, Sullivan, Marrel, & De Gendre, 2004a; 2004b; Ojanlatva, Helenius, Rautava, Ahvenainen, & Koskenvuo, 2003; Nicolosi, Moreira, Villa, & Glasser, 2004) and frequency of sex (Doddridge, Schumm, & Berger, 1987; Kahn & Udry, 1986; Marsiglio & Donnelly, 1991; Mazur, Mueller, Krause, Booth, & 2002; Trussell & Westoff, 1980). Thus, married couples tend to have less sex and to feel less sexually satisfied as they get older. Similar findings have been reported also in Chinese societies (Guo & Huang, 2005; Renaud, Byers, & Pan, 1997). That said, Christopher and Sprecher (2000) have contended that sexual satisfaction might change with age but does not decline as rapidly as does the frequency of sex. Gender also plays a role in the effect of age on sexual satisfaction and frequency of sex. Laumann et al. (1994) reported that women over the age of 40 are less sexually satisfied than women under 40; however, men did not experience the same drop in sexual satisfaction with age.
Couples with a higher educational level generally tend to be more sexually satisfied (Guo & Huang, 2005; Laumann et al., 1994; Liu, 2003), and there is a positive correlation between educational level and frequency of sex (Call, Sprecher, & Schwartz, 1995). Ojanlatva et al. (2003) found, however, that participants who have less education are more satisfied sexually.
In addition, it is generally noted that working couples have less time to engage in intimate contact (Hyde, DeLamater, Plant, & Byrd, 1996). For example, Olson and DeFrain (1994) found that married couples in which both partners are holding full-time jobs engage in sex less frequently than those in which one partner does not work full time outside the home. In the longitudinal study of Hyde et al. (1996) involving 500 women and their husbands, however, no significant differences were found between homemakers and women employed part time, full time, and high full time (i.e., working overtime) on measures of frequency of sex, sexual satisfaction, and decreased sexual desire. Instead, fatigue was associated with sexual outcomes by both employed women and homemakers. Specifically, Hyde et al. found that role quality, especially job role quality, was related to sexual satisfaction and frequency of sex. Similar findings have been reported also in other studies (e.g., Henderson-King & Veroff, 1994; Oggins, Leber, & Veroff, 1993). Based on the assumption that longer working hours lead to higher incomes, these researchers found that higher household incomes were associated with less sexual satisfaction for women. Furthermore, remarriage was found to be correlated with a higher frequency of sex (Call, Sprecher, & Schwartz, 1995).
Family variables. Length of marriage has been shown to be negatively correlated with sexual satisfaction (Liu, 2003) and frequency of sex (Liu, 2000; Stafford, Kline, & Rankin, 2004; Udry, 1980, 1993). As length of marriage is highly correlated with age, however, it is difficult to disentangle the effect of age from that of length of marriage. Guo et al. (1999) found similar patterns among the Chinese, while Zhou (1993) found the same correlation for Chinese wives, but not for husbands.
Regarding the association between number of children and marital sexual satisfaction, studies consistently have indicated that couples with children engage in sex less frequently than those without children (Blumstein & Schwartz, 1983; Greenblat, 1983; James, 1981). O'Fallon, Tsui, and Adewuyi (2003) found that couples without children or with one child engage in sex more frequently than couples with five or more children. Call, Sprecher, and Schwartz (1995) found that couples with very young children (aged 0--4) engage in sex less frequently than those with older children (aged 5-18). Donnelly (1993) found a positive correlation, however, between number of children and frequency of sex.
Sexual problems. Having a medical history of sexual problems affects sexual satisfaction (Dunn, Croft, & Hackett, 2000; MacNeil & Byers, 1997; Woody & D'Souza, 1997). Chevret et al. (2004a, 2004b) found that female partners of men with erectile dysfunction had significantly lower levels of sexual satisfaction than those whose partners did not suffer from the condition. Byers and Grenier (2003) reported similar findings for men with rapid ejaculation.
Interest in sex. Not surprisingly, interest in sex is associated with sexual satisfaction and sexual frequency. Couples who are interested in sex tend to engage in sex more frequently than those who are not (Greeley, 1991). Call et...
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