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Gender Differences in Response to Sexual Expectancies and Changes in Sexual Frequency: A Short-Term Longitudinal Study of Sexual Satisfaction in Newly Married Couples

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Abstract

This longitudinal study of 72 newlywed couples examined the effects of spouses’ expectancies for their sexual satisfaction and changes in their sexual frequency on changes in their sexual satisfaction over 6 months. At Time 1 (baseline), both spouses reported their levels of sexual satisfaction and sexual frequency and completed a 7-day diary of their expectancies for sexual satisfaction. At Time 2 (6 months later), spouses again reported their sexual satisfaction and sexual frequency. Based on evidence that women’s sexual satisfaction is more contextually based, wives’ initial sexual satisfaction expectancies were expected to predict changes in their reports of sexual satisfaction. Based on evidence that men’s sexual satisfaction is more grounded in the physical aspects of sex, in contrast, changes in sexual frequency were expected to predict changes in husbands’ sexual satisfaction. Both hypotheses were supported. Specifically, controlling for marital satisfaction, length of marriage, and age, wives’, but not husbands’, sexual satisfaction expectancies were positively associated with changes in their sexual satisfaction, whereas changes in sexual frequency were positively associated with changes in husbands’, but not wives’, reports of sexual satisfaction. Gender differences in the strength of both effects were significant. Of note, none of the observed effects differed as a function of whether couples lived together before marriage. Implications for theories of gender differences in sexuality, theories of expectancy confirmation, and models of sex and marital therapy are discussed.

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Notes

  1. The use of difference scores has been criticized in two ways. First, differences scores can be unreliable. Nevertheless, Rogosa and Willett (1983) have demonstrated that difference scores tend to be reliable and valid when they demonstrate substantial variability. Consistent with this criterion, in the current study difference scores between Time 1 and Time 2 sexual frequency for were relatively normally distributed with substantial variability, as indicated in Table 1. Second, difference scores are confounded with the individual variables, making it difficult to determine the source of any significant effects (Griffin, Murray, & Gonzalez, 1999). To ensure that any results were due specifically to changes in sexual frequency, rather than initial sexual frequency, initial frequency was controlled in all analyses estimating the impact of changes in frequency on sexual satisfaction.

  2. The majority of participants included in the analyses (85% of husbands and 83% of wives) returned all 7 diaries. Further, 95% of couples included in the analyses returned at least 3 diaries. Analyses excluding couples who returned only one or two diaries did not differ from analyses that included these couples, with the exception that the significance of the gender difference in the effects of expectancies became marginal. Accordingly, all couples returning any diaries were included in all analyses reported here.

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Acknowledgements

All the research presented in this article was supported by a Seed Grant Award to Jim McNulty from The Ohio State University, Mansfield. The authors would like to thank Letitia Clarke, Timothy Dove, Kendra Krichbaum, Kevin McFarland, Lynn Ousley, Michelle Reeder, Jennifer Schurman, Lindsay Smouther, Corwin Thompson, Renee Vidor, Karen Walters, and Danielle Wentworth for their assistance in measurement development, data collection, and data entry. The authors would also like to thank Benjamin Karney and Lowell Gaertner for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper and James Algina for his statistical mentoring.

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA

    James K. McNulty

  2. Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University at Mansfield, Mansfield, OH, USA

    Terri D. Fisher

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Correspondence to James K. McNulty.

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McNulty, J.K., Fisher, T.D. Gender Differences in Response to Sexual Expectancies and Changes in Sexual Frequency: A Short-Term Longitudinal Study of Sexual Satisfaction in Newly Married Couples. Arch Sex Behav 37, 229–240 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-007-9176-1

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