The Influence of Sexual Frequency on Marital Satisfaction Across Ethnic Groups

Abstract

Despite the vast research dedicated to sexual frequency, it is typically researched in an insular fashion. Examination of sexual patterns have been linked to sexual satisfaction and relationship or marital satisfaction or utilized from a biological perspective to define sexual functioning terms. Very little research has connected sexual frequency to marital satisfaction from a multicultural perspective. Even less researched is the correlation between sexual frequency, marital satisfaction, and ethnicity. Specifically, how various ethnic groups view the influence sexual fluency has on marital satisfaction?

This study examined the influence of sexual fluency on marital satisfaction across several ethnic groups. A comprehensive survey was created to examine the relationship between the aforementioned variables. The population proposed for the study were students enrolled at Mercer University, Atlanta Campus, and subscribers to the Counselor Education and Supervision Network (CESNET) Listserv with instructions that only married individuals should complete the measures. The full Marital Satisfaction Inventory-R (MSI-R) and one specific subtest and singular question from the Derogatis Sexual Functioning Inventory (DSFI), along with a demographic questionnaire, were distributed electronically to both populations and the responses created the sample.

Demographic information such as frequency of sexual intercourse, race, gender, age, and religious affiliations will be analyzed. It was hypothesized that the majority of the participants would represent the ethnicities with the largest rates of enrollment at Mercer University, Atlanta Campus: conveniently the institutional data was selected for this prediction since the Counselor Education and Supervision Network (CESNET) Listserv does not publish any demographic data. It was also hypothesized that minority students, regardless of specific ethnicity, will report similar views on the relationship between sexual frequency and marital satisfaction than compared with their Caucasian peers.

A Chi Square test for independence was selected to explore the relationship between two categorical independent variables (i.e., ethnicity, sexual frequency) and categorical dependent variable (i.e., marital satisfaction). This statistical technique compares the observed frequency of cases that occur in each of the categories (Pallant, 2020).

Keywords: marital satisfaction, sexual frequency