Why Married Couples Are Not Good At Sexual Communication

Sexual communication is vital for a happy and mutually satisfying relationship. Are you good at sexual communication with your partner?

New findings show that sexual communication skills are not related to marriage.

Talking sincerely and transparently about sexual issues can be hard. Many people feel embarrassed or humiliated to request what they need explicitly, regardless of whether they’re in a caring relationship.

There are many explanations behind this. Many cases include one or more of the following reasons for low levels of sexual communication skills:

1. Many people grew up with the message that sex is “dirty” or that it is rude to discuss sex.

2. Others might be stressed over offending their partner.

3. Many are also worried about how their partner will respond to their requests.

Yet others might have been with their partner for a considerable length of time, but they still don’t have the foggiest idea how to bring it up.

It is very common to think that marriage and long-term commitment are the ultimate solutions to these problems. After all, marriage is assumed to provide a safe space to talk about any issue. Moreover, many people think that skills are acquired with time, hence commitment is important and marriage secures a long enough period of time to work on these issues.

Do you feel a bit awkward talking about sex with your partner? Read 4 Things To Keep In Mind When Talking About Sex With Your Partner

New Findings Show It Is Not About Commitment

However, new findings from the German Pairfam study show that it is not so simple. Time and commitment are perhaps important in many other fields, but they are not so important when it comes to couples talking about sex. The study addressed a simple question: Does marriage have any correlation with improved sexual communication?

The answer is actually a resounding no. Findings reported in the Journal of Sex Research show that married people reported lower rates of sexual communication skills than most groups.

Seven relationship-status groups can be found in this dataset of 3,207 respondents: married individuals comprise the largest group of the sample (57.4%); never-married single (14%); never-married individuals who have a partner but they live apart (4.3%), never-married individuals who cohabit with their partner (13.1%); divorced/separated single (5.3%), divorced/separated individuals who have a partner but they live apart (2.7%), and divorced/separated who currently cohabit with their partner (3.3%)

Sexual communication was a constructed variable composed of the answers to the following questions: “If I want something different during sex, I say or show it” and “Generally speaking, I can express my sexual needs and desires well,” based on the scale of Plies, Nickel, and Schmidt. These two items were combined by the survey’s team to create a scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 5 (absolutely) with half-point levels.

The results are quite telling. In terms of sexual communication, only never-married cohabiting people were comparable to married people for both genders on the bottom level. Singles and couples who live apart showed much higher levels of sexual communication skills.

To understand these results, one needs to understand what sexual communication is and why it is so important.

Sexual communication is usually defined as the degree to which individuals can express their preferences regarding sex (e.g., kissing, oral sex, intercourse). Individuals with higher sexual communication skills are more likely to express their sexual desires and to initiate their preferred behaviors. A high level of sexual communication often means that individuals not only disclose their sexual preferences but also are assertive enough to ask their partners to fulfill their desires.

Why Is Sexual Communication So Important?

Studies show that sexual communication is positively correlated with sexual satisfaction. In fact, some researchers show that sexual communication—particularly the ability to ask for specific acts—is a mediator between sexual self-esteem and sexual satisfaction. Other studies show that higher levels of sexual communication positively correlate with more orgasms experienced and a higher frequency of intercourse. Studies show that this is true for men and women alike.

Do you want your sex life to be more interesting and exciting? Read Sexual Intimacy: Mastering The Art of Subtle Seduction  

Why Are Married Couples Not Great at Sexual Communication?

It is very common to think that good communication skills take time and effort. We learn each other’s needs over time and become skilled in expressing our needs after investing more and more effort into it. So, marriage should be perfect for developing sexual communication skills, right?

Apparently not, it doesn’t work like that. One can only speculate why, and future studies should continue investigating this. The first possibility is that the average length of marriages is longer, thus we see a diminishing marginal effect, as several longitudinal studies show in researching other effects of marriage over time. This means that with time, the will and passion to invest in asking what you want to decline. Hence married people report lower levels of sexual communication skills over time.

The second possibility is that the correlation between being married and reporting higher levels of sexual communication skills works in reverse: people with lower levels of sexual communication skills are more likely to marry. They might want to feel safer and cover for their lower levels in this realm and, thus are negatively self-selected into marriage. In other words, those with lower levels of sexual communication get married earlier and stay married for more time and thus affect the results.

In any case, it seems that being alert and fresh is more important in developing good sexual communication skills and feeling good about what one wants. Unmarried couples and singles do this naturally, and apparently they have something to teach their married peers.

References:

Bridges, S. K., Lease, S. H., & Ellison, C. R. (2004). Predicting sexual satisfaction in women: Implications for counselor education and training. Journal of Counseling & Development, 82(2), 158-166.

Byers, E. S., & Demmons, S. (1999). Sexual satisfaction and sexual self‐disclosure within dating relationships. Journal of Sex Research, 36(2), 180-189.

Ferroni, P., & Taffe, J. (1997). Women’s emotional well-being: The importance of communicating sexual needs. Sexual and Marital Therapy, 12(2), 127-138.

Frederick, D. A., Lever, J., Gillespie, B. J., & Garcia, J. R. (2017). What keeps passion alive? Sexual satisfaction is associated with sexual communication, mood setting, sexual variety, oral sex, orgasm, and sex frequency in a national US study. The Journal of Sex Research, 54(2), 186-201.

Haavio-Mannila, E., & Kontula, O. (1997). Correlates of increased sexual satisfaction. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 26(4), 399-419.

Hurlbert, D. F. (1991). The role of assertiveness in female sexuality: A comparative study between sexually assertive and sexually nonassertive women. Journal of sex & marital therapy, 17(3), 183-190.

Kislev, E. (2019). Does Marriage Really Improve Sexual Satisfaction? Evidence From the Pairfam Data Set. The Journal of Sex Research, 1-12.

MacNeil, S., & Byers, E. S. (1997). The relationships between sexual problems, communication, and sexual satisfaction. Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 6(4), 277-283.

Ménard, A. D., & Offman, A. (2009). The interrelationships between sexual self-esteem, sexual assertiveness and sexual satisfaction. The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 18(1-2), 35-45.

Oattes, M. K., & Offman, A. (2007). Global self-esteem and sexual self-esteem as predictors of sexual communication in intimate relationships. Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 16.

Sexual communication can be a bit dicey sometimes because a lot of couples hesitate to be that open. But, remember that it plays a very important part in determining whether your conjugal life turns out to be a fulfilling one or not.

If you want to know more about sexual communication and how to be better at it, then check out this video below:



Written by Elyakim Kislev Ph.D.
Originally appeared in Psychology Today