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Australian Gay Men’s Satisfaction with Sexual Agreements: The Roles of Relationship Quality, Jealousy, and Monogamy Attitudes

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Abstract

This study examined whether relationship quality, dispositional jealousy, and attitudes towards monogamy were associated with gay men’s satisfaction with the agreements they have in their relationships about extra-dyadic sex. Three types of sexual agreement were examined: closed (no extra-dyadic sex is allowed), monogamish (extra-dyadic sex is allowed only when both members of the couple are present), and open (extra-dyadic sex is allowed). Results from a 2010 survey of 772 gay men in relationships indicated that sexual agreement satisfaction was positively associated with levels of intimacy and commitment for all three types of sexual agreement, but was differentially associated with sexual satisfaction within the relationship, jealousy, and monogamy attitudes as a function of sexual agreement type. Mean levels of sexual satisfaction, jealousy, and monogamy attitudes also differed between types of agreement. These findings provided preliminary evidence that sexual agreement satisfaction may be influenced by different factors depending on the type of agreement, which has useful implications for professionals with gay male clients experiencing dissatisfaction with their agreement or with their relationship more generally.

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Notes

  1. The Sexual Agreement Investment Scale (Neilands et al., 2010), which also measures sexual agreement satisfaction, was not used because it was not publicly available when data were collected for the present study.

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Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank the men who participated in the survey, Stuart Todd for his invaluable research assistance, and Anthony Lyons and three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on an earlier version of this article.

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  1. Psychology Discipline, College of Arts, Victoria University, POB 14428, Melbourne, VIC, 8001, Australia

    Warwick Hosking

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  1. Warwick Hosking
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Correspondence to Warwick Hosking.

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Hosking, W. Australian Gay Men’s Satisfaction with Sexual Agreements: The Roles of Relationship Quality, Jealousy, and Monogamy Attitudes. Arch Sex Behav 43, 823–832 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-013-0197-7

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