A dyadic assessment of the association between sexual communication and daily sexual satisfaction

Abstract

Although sexual communication’s association with sexual and relational functioning and satisfaction have been well established, to date only a small number of studies have used dyadic data, and all have used single time-point self-report measures of sexual outcomes. This study examined the unique association between sexual communication quality and daily levels of sexual satisfaction in couples. Participants included 81 couples comprised of mostly mixed-sex dyads of a diverse range of ages and relationship lengths. Using dyadic cross-sectional data on sexual communication quality in couples as well as 21-day daily diary data assessments of sexual satisfaction on days individuals reported having sex, our analyses revealed significant within-partner and cross-partner associations between individual’s perceived sexual communication quality in their relationship and average daily sexual satisfaction. Greater perceived sexual communication quality was also associated with less variability in individuals’ daily reports of sexual satisfaction on days they had sex. Additional models were run adding relationship satisfaction as a covariate and controlling for relationship length. Lastly, similarity in reports of sexual communication between partners did not moderate the association between sexual communication quality and average daily sexual satisfaction. Our findings suggest that greater quality sexual communication may be uniquely associated with better and more consistent daily sexual satisfaction in relationships. This research expands our current understanding of sexual communication’s impact in relationships day to day.