Exploring the prevalence and characteristics of self-labelled identity, coping, and mental health among BDSM-practicing adults in the United States

Is BDSM in the eye of the beholder? Variations in Conventional and non-Conventional Sexual Behaviors by Self-Identification vs. BDSM Practice Frequency in the General Population

“…Researchers have also studied the mental health and sexual wellbeing associated to nCSB and their practitioners. Compared to non-practitioners, BDSM practitioners were found to be less neurotic, more extraverted, more open to new experiences, more conscientious, less rejection sensitive, had higher subjective well-being (Wismeijer & van Assen, 2013), and as having better mental health and emotion regulation (Dahl et al, 2023). Moreover, both men and women BDSM practitioners reported better sexual function scores in almost every dimension (Huang et al, 2023).…”

“…Thus, selfidenti cation amongst women would be less frowned upon, which explains why there was a higher correlation between BDSM self-identi cation and practice frequency for them than for men. Nevertheless, giving that more often than not, when studying speci c BDSM practices or a community self-identi cation and recruitment within a BDSM community is the strategy of choice (Bezreh et al, 2012; Martinez, 2018; Rogak & Connor, 2018), whereas when studying the general population researchers often rely on self-disclosure of practicing nCSB, yet less often self-identi cation, or both (Dahl et al, 2023;Herbenick et al, 2020), this study ndings demonstrate the impact in over or underestimations of either BDSM practitioners or behaviors by using one or the other method. Therefore, future studies are encouraged to either use both methods or only one depending if the study purpose is focused on characterize identities or behaviors.…”

“…Meanwhile, Beckmann (2009) describes the parallels between BDSM scenes and plays and religious practices or cultural rites in the use of particular attires and accessories, compulsion, restraint, ordeals to acquire powers, bodily practices, modulation of individual's self-awareness, altered experiences or transcendence. Therefore, given the high prevalence of sexual dysfunctions (McCool et al, 2016;Shifren et al, 2008) and sexual consent issues (Mori et al, 2020), BDSM offer experience and knowledge that may aid people or their relationship to emphasize ful llment, emotional experiences, and fostering deeper interpersonal connections (Simula, 2019a;Turley, 2022;Turley et al, 2018), or to reach better sexual satisfaction (Wismeijer & van Assen, 2013), function (Huang et al, 2023;Rogak & Connor, 2018), or be more satis ed and less concerned about their sexuality (Botta et al, 2019;Strizzi et al, 2022), to perhaps also have an overall a better mental health and emotional regulation (Dahl et al, 2023). Thus, Chilean sex research is yet to begin to understand the full depth of our sexuality from traditional views, where studies like this could pave the way, demonstrating the potential to learn more about ourselves sexually beyond CSB.…”

“…Researchers have used different sampling strategies to investigate nCSB or speci c BDSM practices, using selfidenti cation as BDSM or as a practitioner of the speci c sexual practice (Martinez, 2018;Schuerwegen et al, 2023), interest in BDSM practices (Bezreh et al, 2012), recruiting within a BDSM community (Rogak & Connor, 2018), sampling from the general population (Herbenick et al, 2020), or a combination of them (Dahl et al, 2023;Schuerwegen et al, 2023). However, there is more than one pitfall and limitations that these methods incur.…”