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Sexual Expression and Subsequent Marital Quality Among Partnered Older Adults
Heidi A Lyons1, David F Warner2,3, Terri L Orbuch4
1The Department of Sociology, Anthropology, Social Work, and Criminal Justice, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, 48309, USA. lyons2@oakland.edu.
Archives of Sexual Behavior
|August 20, 2024
Summary
Older couples with more sexual expression agreement and frequency reported better marital quality. Sexual expression impacts wives
Area of Science:
- Gerontology
- Sociology
- Psychology
Background:
- Research links couples' sex lives to relationship quality, but primarily in younger populations.
- Less is known about how sexual expression influences marital quality in older couples.
- Sexual expression encompasses attitudes, desires, and behaviors.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine how couple-level configurations of sexual expression impact later marital quality in older, long-term married heterosexual couples.
- To identify patterns of sexual expression and their association with relationship quality.
Main Methods:
- Latent class analysis was used on dyadic data from 620 heterosexual couples.
- Data were drawn from Rounds 2 and 3 of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project.
- Examined influence of sexual expression configurations on later marital quality.
Main Results:
- Higher agreement on sexual expression and greater sexual frequency were linked to better later marital quality for both husbands and wives.
- Specific sexual expression configurations were associated with wives' negative marital quality, but not husbands'.
- Wives' mental health and husbands' functional limitations influenced later marital quality across all classes.
Conclusions:
- Sexual expression is a relevant factor for marital quality in older couples.
- Practitioners should consider sexual expression when addressing marital quality in later life.
- Understanding sexual expression patterns can inform interventions for aging couples.
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