Abstract
Marriage is an important adult relationship, and recent research indicates that sexual mindfulness, awareness and non-judgment, may be an important tool in helping maintain relational and sexual well-being. Using a nationally representative U.S. sample of newly married, mixed-sex couples (women’s age M = 29.70 years; men’s age M = 31.76 years; N = 1473 couples), we evaluated whether the two factors of sexual mindfulness, awareness and non-judgment, were linked with relational flourishing, sexual harmony, and orgasm consistency. We utilized an actor–partner interdependence model within a structural equation modeling framework to evaluate how husbands’ and wives’ awareness and non-judgment were associated with relational flourishing, sexual harmony, and orgasm consistency. Results indicated that both wives’ and husbands’ awareness was positively associated with relational flourishing, sexual harmony, and orgasm consistency. Partner effects were found for all outcomes. However, no partner effects were found between non-judgment and orgasm consistency. Therapists, educators, and couples may consider the use of sexual mindfulness skills when addressing marriage and sexual relationships.
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Notes
Model fit indices prior to correlating items suggested by modification indices was χ2(1248) = 3111.90, p < .001, RMSEA = .040 (90% CI: 0.039–0.041), CFI = .921, TLI = .911, SRMR = .036.
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All human studies have been approved by the BYU IRB ethics committee and have therefore been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments.
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CEL contributed to conceptualization, writing original draft, and visualization. TFM contributed to conceptualization and writing original draft. TLC carried out data analyses. RWC performed writing original draft, review, and editing. DMB performed conceptualization, data collection, review, and editing. JBY, EKH, and SJ were involved in data collection, review, and editing.
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Leavitt, C.E., Maurer, T.F., Clyde, T.L. et al. Linking Sexual Mindfulness to Mixed-Sex Couples’ Relational Flourishing, Sexual Harmony, and Orgasm. Arch Sex Behav 50, 2589–2602 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-021-02054-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-021-02054-0