Does Sexual Satisfaction Change With Relationship Duration?

Abstract

Despite a large body of empirical literature on sexual satisfaction, its development over the course of a relationship is still unclear. Only a small number of studies, most of which have relied on cross-sectional data of convenience samples, have explicitly focused on relationship duration, and empirical evidence is mixed. We analyzed how sexual satisfaction changes over the course of a relationship using three waves of the German Family Panel study (pairfam). We concentrated our analyses on young and middle-aged heterosexual individuals in committed relationships (N = 2,814) and applied fixed effects regression models, which have the advantage of estimations based on changes within individuals over time. We found a positive development of sexual satisfaction in the first year of a relationship, followed by a steady decline. This pattern persisted even when controlling for the frequency of intercourse, although the effects were, in part, mediated by intercourse frequency. We explained the non-linear effect of relationship duration on sexual satisfaction with an initial learning effect regarding partner-specific sexual skills, which is then outweighed by a decline in passion at later stages of a relationship. Moreover, we found significant effects for the control variables of health status, intimacy in couple communication, and conflict style, as expected. In contrast to past research, however, cohabitation and marriage were not found to play a role for sexual satisfaction in our data. Further research is required to deepen the understanding of the reasons why sexual satisfaction changes with relationship duration.

Pornography, preference for porn‐like sex, masturbation, and men's sexual and relationship satisfaction

“…Past research suggests several possible confounds of the relationships being tested. Relationship length has been found to negatively correlate with sexual satisfaction (Schmiedeberg & Schröder, ), and research suggests that religiosity may impact the nature of the association between pornography use and relational outcomes (Perry & Whitehead, ). In addition, age was found to correlate with a number of the model predictors in the preliminary analysis (Table ).…”

Sexual Quality of Life and Aging: A Prospective Study of a Nationally Representative Sample

“…Examining the effects of these variables in the relationships between aging and SQoL would be an interesting avenue for future research. We also did not account for relationship duration, which is related to SQoL (Schmiedeberg & Schröder, 2016), because it would have been perfectly confounded with the effect of age for people who remained with the same partner between waves of data collection. Finally, the present study has focused on SQoL and aging in the US.…”

Women's use of intimate apparel as subtle sexual signals in committed, heterosexual relationships

“…A methodological limitation to this study is that participants were not asked the duration of their relationship, so use of intimate apparel across time could not be measured. Schmiedeberg and Shroder [61] found that sexual satisfaction peaks in the second half of the first year of a relationship and then declines over time. As the relationship progresses, the couple becomes more acquainted with one another and experience mutual life stressors; the couple transitions into the companionate phase, characterized by a state of comfort and commonality [62].…”