Early Adversity and Sexual Diversity: the Importance of Self-reported and Neurobiologicalsexual Reward Sensitivity

Abstract

Sexually-diverse individuals show disproportionate rates of early life adversity and disproportionate rates of some of the psychosocial outcomes traditionally associated with adversity, such as sexual risk taking. The present work examines whether these patterns can be attributed to heightened sexual reward sensitivity among adversity-exposed women. We useda combination of self-report and EEG measures to assess sexual reward sensitivity among women with a wide range of early adversity experiences and a wide range of sexual attractions and identities. We found that various forms of early adversity predicted both self-report sexual reward sensitivity (i.e., women’s self-reported preferences for pursuing sexual rewards despite the associated risks) and neurobiological sexual reward sensitivity (i.e., neural response to sexual stimuli). Furthermore, both self-report and neurobiological sexual reward sensitivity predicted some forms of sexual risk taking, including other gender (physical and health risks) same gender sexual behavior (social risks). The current work makes substantial contributions to our understanding of the sexual-developmental repercussions of early adversity, and underscores the importance of including greater attention to the dynamics of pleasure and reward.