Dimensions of sexual experiences reflected through adjective selection: findings from a US nationally representative survey

Abstract

Background A growing body of research focuses on the quality of sexual experiences, such as the importance of sexual pleasure, comfort, and intimacy for overall health. Building upon this work, this study aims to develop a deeper understanding of the dimensions of sexual experiences using data from 2897 adult participants from the 2018 National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior (NSSHB; 1314 men, 1583 women). Methods We conducted an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to examine the extent to which 20 adjectives describing adults’ most recent sexual experience (e.g. boring, playful, romantic, etc.) formed a coherent factor or several factors. Next, we explored how different scores on each factor were associated with sexual outcomes for women and men. Results Our EFA generated two explanatory factors that mapped onto two underlying components: sexual pleasure and sexual danger. These two factors were correlated with sexual health outcomes including sexual wantedness, orgasm, self-rated sexual health, meaningfulness of sex and pain during sex. Conclusions We found that the innovative list of adjectives used in the 2018 NSSHB provided important and reliable insight into latent dimensions of sex. Specifically, we found that the pleasure dimension was important for both genders, and especially for women, in experiences where the sex was wanted, orgasmic, meaningful, healthy, and without pain. Implications for sexual experiences and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Focusing on Safety or Pleasure Determine Condom Use Intentions Differently Depending on Condom Availability and STI Risk

“…In contrast, those who believe that condomless sex is more exciting, allows for a more pleasurable experience, and increases partner connectedness are more likely to forgo condom use (e.g., Parsons et al, 2000). This is also aligned with recent evidence from a nationally representative sample of participants in the US (Ford et al, 2022), showing that people tend to construe and describe their experiences around sexual pleasure (using terms such as "pleasurable", "intimate", and "fun") and sexual danger (using terms such as "stressful", "risky", and "scary)". Aligned with these findings, we argue that decision-making in sex is largely shaped by these two fundamental motives, given their crucial role in informing health behaviors (Whiting et al, 2019).…”