Association between Psychopathological Dimensions and Sexual Functioning/Sexual Arousal in Young Adults

Abstract

Psychological-psychiatric factors have a different effect on sexual functioning in men and women. This research aimed to examine the association between psychopathological dimensions and dimensions of sexual functioning in Spanish young adults in two studies. Study 1 examined sexual functioning and psychopathological dimensions in 700 women and 516 men. Study 2 conducted an experimental laboratory task to evaluate subjective sexual arousal and genital sensations when watching visual sexual stimuli in a subsample of participants from Study 1 (143 women and 123 men). As a result, the first study showed that depression and anxiety-related symptoms had a negative effect, both in men and women, and having a partner had a positive influence on the dimensions of sexual functioning. The second study showed that anxiety symptoms were positively associated with subjective sexual arousal in both men and women, and anxiety was associated with the assessment of genital sensations in men. The differences between the results of anxiety may be explained because sexual arousal was evaluated in general terms in Study 1, whereas it was evaluated as a state in Study 2. These findings confirm that the presence of psychopathological symptoms contributes to sexual functioning, as well as the necessity of strengthening mental illness prevention programs that include sexual health components.

Solitary Sexual Desire: Its Relation to Subjective Orgasm Experience and Sexual Arousal in the Masturbation Context within a Spanish Population

“…The fact that there were no significant sex differences between men and women in self-reported excitation when viewing masturbating people coincides with other laboratory studies in which similar masturbation behaviors to those of the present study [ 45 ] or sexual relationships [ 46 , 47 , 48 ] were shown.…”

Study of Sexual Concordance in Men and Women with Different Typologies of Adherence to the Sexual Double Standard

“…In line with previous laboratory studies ( Arcos-Romero et al., 2019 ; Granados et al., 2021 ; Soler et al., 2021 ), genital responses were defined in terms of the differences between scores from the sexual stimulus and the baseline stimulus. Firstly, the concordance between genital response and the subjective sexual measurement was examined by partial correlations separately in men and women by controlling for propensity for sexually excited (SES) and sexually inhibited (SIS1 and SIS2).…”

Sexual Disorders in Men

“…Psychiatric disorders are more prevalent among women than men, with symptoms of depression and anxiety, as well as unspecified psychiatric disorder and psychological distress, being more prevalent among women, whereas substance disorders are more prevalent among men. Men present a higher propensity for enhanced sexual desire during psychopathological states compared with women (Soler et al, 2021). Psychological-psychiatric factors have a different effect on sexual functioning in men and women.…”