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Updated: Jun 13, 2025

Assessment of Sexual Behavior of Male Mice
Published on: March 5, 2020
Dyadic and Longitudinal Influences of Sexual Communication on Relationship Satisfaction, Emotional Intimacy, and
Tianen Chen1, Minhao Dai2, Christopher Calabrese3
1Department of Communication, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University.
Abstract:
The influences of sexual communication on relational outcomes have garnered attention in the current literature, but such dynamics have seldom been explored among same-sex couples using dyadic, longitudinal data. The current study investigates the actor (i.e. on the individual self) and partner (i.e. on the partner) effects of sexual communication (presence and quality) on relationship satisfaction, emotional intimacy, and daily affect among same-sex male couples using dyadic, longitudinal data. Interracial couple status and age discrepancies between partners are tested as moderating variables. One hundred and three diverse cis-gender male couples participated in a one-time pre-survey and a daily survey for 15 consecutive days. The results showed that the presence and quality of sexual communication had positive actor effects on relationship satisfaction, emotional intimacy, and daily affect. The presence of sexual communication also had a positive partner effect on emotional intimacy. Moreover, our results showed significant interactions between interracial couple status, age discrepancies, and sexual communication on several outcome variables. Theoretical contributions, practical implications, and study limitations were discussed.
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