Sanctification or inhibition? Religious dualities and sexual satisfaction.

Abstract

Religiosity can influence sexual satisfaction both positively and negatively. To test positive and negative mechanisms, we assessed how religiosity is indirectly associated with sexual satisfaction through sexual sanctification and inhibited sexual passion. We sampled individuals from Amazon's Mechanical Turk (N ϭ 1,695, Study 1) and mixed-sex dyads from Bovitz Inc. (N ϭ 481 dyads, Study 2). Religiosity consistently had a positive indirect association with sexual satisfaction through sexual sanctification; little evidence suggested religiosity had an indirect association with sexual satisfaction through inhibited sexual passion. When accounting for these mechanisms simultaneously, however, religiosity consistently had a negative direct association with sexual satisfaction, supporting the possibility of religious dualities. In the couple study, men's religiosity predicted their partner reporting higher sexual sanctification (for married couples), but women's religiosity did not predict partner sexual sanctification. Altogether, these results paint a complex picture for how religiosity might influence sexuality. Understanding the nuance of these results may help people maximize the potential benefits of their belief systems in sexual relationships.

Beliefs about sexuality and their associations with sexual passion

“…Among newly married, heterosexual couples, endorsing higher sexual sanctification beliefs predicted higher levels of sexual frequency, sexual and marital satisfaction, and a smaller decline in sexual satisfaction a year later compared to couples who did not endorse sexual sanctification beliefs (Hernandez‐Kane & Mahoney, 2018). Similar findings related to sexual satisfaction and sexual frequency have been observed in individuals in committed relationships (Leonhardt, Busby, Hanna‐Walker, & Leavitt, 2020) and college students (Murray‐Swank et al, 2005). One possible reason for these associations may be that sexual sanctification leads to healthy sexual passion.…”

“…We controlled for relationship length, income, education, and race because our variables of interest, particularly sexual passion, are significantly associated with these variables (Frederick et al, 2017; Leonhardt, Busby, Hanna‐Walker, & Leavitt, 2020; Leonhardt, Busby, & Valdez, 2020; Maxwell et al, 2017). We only used the women's answers of relationship length to avoid multicollinearity.…”

“…Additionally, sexual growth beliefs suggest individuals put forth effort into maintaining their sexual relationships, possibly influencing their partner's experiences. In fact, the available literature suggests that sexual destiny and growth beliefs and endorsement of sexual sanctification do have significant actor and partner effects (Leonhardt, Busby, Hanna‐Walker, & Leavitt, 2020; Maxwell et al, 2017). And, as previously mentioned, sexual destiny and growth beliefs are associated with passionate love (Maxwell et al, 2017), and sexual sanctification if focused on the energy and time given to sex (Mahoney et al, 2005; Wrzesniewski et al, 1997).…”

Handbook of Positive Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality

“…For decades, higher global R/S has been linked to greater sex guilt and more inhibition of sexual activity outside of marriage (Hernandez et al, 2013), implying that R/S mainly functions to suppress sexual wellbeing. However, greater sanctification of sexuality predicts greater sexual satisfaction crosssectionally among married and unmarried partners (Leonhardt et al, 2021) and longitudinally among newlyweds (Hernandez-Kane & Mahoney, 2018). It also is tied to lower sex guilt among opposite-sex, same-sex, and cohabiting partners (Leonhardt et al, 2019;Phillips et al, 2017) and to lower odds of physical and emotional cheating, even after controlling for plausible alternate explanations (general R/S, problematic alcohol use, trait self-control; McAllister et al, 2020).…”

Religiosity and relationship quality in dating relationships.

“…It appears that these effects may be more complex than initially understood. Other studies have found religiosity can have positive and negative effects on sexual satisfaction (Leonhardt, Busby, Hanna-Walker, 2020). Furthermore, the effects may differ between unmarried and married couples.…”