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Recent Findings on Women’s Motives for Engaging in Sexual Activity

  • Integrating the Psychosocial (B McCarthy, R Segraves and A Clayton, Section Editors)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

Motives for engaging in sex are complex, and the assessment of these motives offers unique insights into women’s sexual function and overall sexual well-being. In this review, we summarize the most recent literature on reasons for sexual activity among women and comment on the relationship between sexual motives and sexual function with particular attention to sexual interest/arousal.

Recent Findings

Recent work has focused on the effects of relationship type and attachment on sexual motives, differences in motives based on sexual orientation, and the association between sexual motives and sexual function. Contextual factors that impact women’s reasons for having sex are also assessed, and the findings of these studies are interpreted with a clinical lens. The authors conclude that the valence of women’s reasons for having sex, and the associations that women have with certain reasons, influences the likelihood that any one motive is linked to increased desire.

Summary

Women’s motives for engaging in sexual activity are complex, heterogeneous, and influenced by several important domains. Clinical and research implications are discussed. Future research that expands upon these recent findings and more thoroughly addresses the relationship between sexual function and sexual motivations, as well as other clinical phenomena, is warranted.

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Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance •• Of major importance

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, The University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA

    Cindy M. Meston & Amelia M. Stanton

Authors
  1. Cindy M. Meston
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  2. Amelia M. Stanton
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Correspondence to Cindy M. Meston.

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Conflict of Interest

Cindy M. Meston serves as a consultant for Strategic Science and Technologies, LLC; Endoceutics, Inc.; Palatin Technologies, Inc.; and as an advisory board member and share holder for S1 Biopharma. Amelia M. Stanton has no conflicts of interest to report.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article contains studies involving human subjects performed by the first author; those studies were approved by the Institutional Review Board of The University of Texas at Austin. This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by the second author.

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This article is part of Topical Collection on Integrating the Psychosocial

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Meston, C.M., Stanton, A.M. Recent Findings on Women’s Motives for Engaging in Sexual Activity. Curr Sex Health Rep 9, 128–135 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11930-017-0114-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11930-017-0114-5

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