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Can Sex Survive Marriage?
8 Ways Sex & Relationship Satisfaction Connect over Decades
“I’m also interested in the modern suggestion that you can have a combination of love and sex in a marriage — which no previous society has ever believed.” -Alain de Botton
Researchers have long pondered how relationship satisfaction and sexual satisfaction influence one another during long-term relationships. Studies have looked at various aspects, but it isn’t clear how they influence each other. Is a good sexual relationship necessary for overall relationship satisfaction? Does having a quality relationship make married sex life better? Is it possible to stay married and be sexually satisfied?
Studying Sexual and Relationship Satisfaction over Time
To look at how relationship satisfaction and sexual satisfaction play out, Christopher Quinn-Nilas (2019) from the University of Guelph, Canada analyzed data collected over two decades from over 700 couples in stable marriages, drawing upon the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study.
Participants, mainly White American heterosexual couples, completed three waves of interviews and survey questionnaires. The first was in 1995 to 1996, the second from 2004 to 2006 and the final from 2013 to 2014. The average age at…
