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

Dimensions of sexual experiences reflected through adjective selection: findings from a US... BackgroundA 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).MethodsWe 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.ResultsOur 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.ConclusionsWe 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. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Sexual Health CSIRO Publishing

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

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References (53)

Publisher
CSIRO Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s). Published by CSIRO Publishing
ISSN
1448-5028
eISSN
1449-8987
DOI
10.1071/SH22043
Publisher site
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Abstract

BackgroundA 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).MethodsWe 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.ResultsOur 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.ConclusionsWe 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.

Journal

Sexual Health – CSIRO Publishing

Published: Aug 1, 2022

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