Sexual satisfaction among Korean-American couples in the Midwestern United States

One hundred couples composed of American husbands and Korean wives from the midwestern United States were surveyed with respect to sexual satisfaction. Though the responses of spouses were correlated highly, husbands were more satisfied with the quality of the sexual relationship than were wives. As found previously with more general populations, self-esteem and higher levels of positive regard, communication, and cohesion were related to higher sexual satisfaction for both husbands and wives. For wives, higher socioeconomic status and younger age were related to higher sexual satisfaction, as was the husband's being a current or retired member of the US military. Cultural factors were also important; conflicts over sexual practices related to cultural differences, though limited to about 10% of the subjects, were related to sexual satisfaction for both husbands and wives. Wives' English proficiency was related slightly to sexual satisfaction, but not husbands' proficiency in Korean. For husbands only, marital conflict over cultural differences and rejection by relatives and friends were related negatively to sexual satisfaction. Clinical implications of the results are discussed.