Intimacy and Belonging

Abstract

There is a paucity of systematic analysis of the relation between sexual activity and mental health. To address this gap, we ask whether sexual activity associates with lower levels of depression among older adults. We hypothesize that sexual activity-especially if it typically incorporates other forms of physical affection-may be a socially meaningful activity and may create intimacy that provides social uplift. We test this hypothesis against alternative hypotheses that relationship characteristics or physical health could account for any association between sex and depression. In addition, we consider whether there are gender dynamics that affect the association between sexual activity and depression. We analyze data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), a nationally representative survey of adults aged 57 to 85. Given findings of significant gendered aspects of depression, sexual activity, social support, and aging, we estimate separate models for women and men. Although we find differences between models for men and women for many control variables that correspond to gendered differences in depression, sexual activity that typically incorporates other forms of physical intimacy has a robust association with lower depression for both women and men.

Sexual and Relationship Satisfaction associated with Shifts in Dyadic Trajectories of Depressive Symptoms in German Couples across Four Years

“…The previous literature examined cross-sectional links between sexual satisfaction and depressive symptoms, where our findings expands this link longitudinally and dyadically. Our significant men's and women's own effects were consistent with a previous study that found higher sexual activity was linked with lower depressive symptoms for both men and women (Ganong & Larsoon, 2011), but this link held up across time in our study. To our knowledge, no other study examined partner effects of this link.…”

“…Comparing these results to the existing literature on the general association between sexual satisfaction and depressive symptoms reveal consistency where sexual satisfaction was associated with less depressive symptoms (e.g. Ganong & Larsoon, 2011); and inconsistency with earlier research that found higher sexual satisfaction was associated with greater depressive symptoms (Peleg-Sagy & Shahar, 2013).…”

“…Sexual satisfaction is an overall sense of how satisfied one is with their sex life, (Sanchez-Fuentes, Santos-Iglesias, & Sierra, 2014), and we identified only a few studies that examined the positive effects sexual satisfaction on depressive symptoms. A cross-sectional study that addressed this link within a sample of older-aged adults, found that men's and women's own reports of higher frequency of sexual activity was uniquely associated with their own lower depressive symptoms (no partner effects were tested; Ganong & Larsoon, 2011), even when controlling for a number of relationship characteristics. Similarly, another cross-sectional study found that an increase in the number of sexual activities was a possible resiliency factor for men with depressive symptoms (Lorenz & Sari van Anders, 2014).…”

The Influence of Early Experiences and Adult Attachment on the Exhibition of the Sexual Double Standard

“…Surprisingly, we did not observe similar results for male participants. One potential explanation for this finding is that men, relative to women, tend not to strongly associate sexual activity with emotions (Ganong and Larson 2011;Hiller 2004). It is possible that even male participants who were low in avoidance did not feel strongly about their partner's sexual history (or did care but suppressed the emotion; Marks and Vicary in press), rendering the interaction between participant gender, target gender, and target's number of partners non-significant.…”

Short-term changes in behaviors resulting from COVID-19-related social isolation and their influences on mental health

“…This study, therefore, evaluates the potential changes in health behaviors and their influences on mental health in people socially isolated due to a COVID-19 lockdown. This assessment was partly necessitated by studies (Ganong & Larson, 2011;Shim et al, 2014) that have indicated that mental health decline is a potential consequence of the aforementioned changes in behaviors.…”