The association between body esteem and sexual desire among college women

Relationships between body image variables and sexuality have been found among several groups of women. However, research has largely focused on generalized experiences of sexuality. With the exception of two studies which focused on specific medical populations, to our knowledge there has been no investigation of the relationship between body image and acute measures of sexual response. In the current study, we investigated the relationships between body esteem, sexual response to erotica in a laboratory-setting, and self-reported sexual functioning in a non-clinical sample of 85 college women. Women participated in one study session, during which mental sexual arousal, perceptions of physical arousal, and sexual desire were assessed. Results showed that higher body esteem was significantly positively related to sexual desire in response to erotica in the laboratory setting. Similarly, higher body esteem was positively related to self-reported measures of sexual desire, as assessed by a validated measure of sexual function. The sexual attractiveness and weight concern subscales of the Body Esteem Scale, which relate to body characteristics that are most likely to be under public scrutiny, were particularly linked to sexual desire. This is the first study to show that body esteem is related to sexual responses to a standardized erotic stimulus in a laboratory setting.