Abstract and Introduction
Abstract
We evaluated concordance levels of young adult spouses (N=107 couples, total N=214) with regards to sexual satisfaction by using Golombock–Rust Inventory of Sexual Satisfaction (GRISS). Each spouse of the couples filled out both female and male forms of the GRISS. Self- and spouse-reported scores were analyzed in terms of inter-rater correlation and agreement. The prevalence of overall sexual dissatisfaction was 10.3% and 26.2% in wives and husbands, respectively. The correlation coefficient (r) between the self-reported overall sexual satisfaction scores and those assessed by the spouses was 0.25 (P=0.014) and 0.04 (P=0.680) for wives and husbands, respectively. The sensitivity for perception of partner's sexual problems ranged 11% to 47%, and the specificity was around 64% to 100%, except for vaginismus, which had a sensitivity of 83% and a specificity of 25%. The prevalance-adjusted and bias-adjusted kappa (PABAK) value for overall sexual dissatisfaction reported by themselves and that assessed by their spouses was 0.68 and 0.16 for the wives and husbands, respectively. For specific female sexual problems, the PABAK value was the highest in female dissatisfaction (0.81) followed by anorgasmia (0.78), female avoidance (0.44), vaginismus (0.44), infrequency (0.33), non-communication (0.14) and female nonsensuality (0.14). For specific male sexual problems, the PABAK value was the highest in male nonsensuality (1.00), followed by male dissatisfaction (0.78), infrequency (0.46), non-communication (0.42), male avoidance (0.36), impotence (0.27) and premature ejaculation (−0.04). Our findings suggested that in this clinical sample the partner's perception of sexual dysfunction and dissatisfaction did not correlate well with the subject's self-reported sexual problems, and generally male sexual problems were less correctly perceived by the partners than were female sexual problems. This result may provide helpful information for clinicians who take care of patients' sexual problems.
Introduction
In dyadic relationships, both partners bring their own characteristics into the relationship, and ensuing transactions within the relationship are likely to be affected by these characteristics. Marriage, an intimate and enduring type of dyadic relationship, constitutes a powerful form of communication and provides the most socially approved context for sexual activity. Whereas individual sexual difficulties could affect one's sexual functioning directly, those difficulties may be equally important while interacting with the spouse. The associations between partner perceptions and relationship functioning have been investigated in domains, such as attachment, conflict and interpersonal characteristics. Understanding, projection and positive perceptions are relevant components of empathy and have been shown to predict relationship functioning, although the results have not been consistent across all measures and relationship types.
Given the fact that sexual satisfaction and empathy are interpersonal in nature, spouses are likely to have more empathic skills on their partner's sexual satisfaction than would another informant people. Thus understanding of the partner's perception of sexual satisfaction and function may be important in managing a person's sexual problems. However, assessment of sexual behavior in dyadic units is mostly not directly derived by data collection from both members of dyads. Most studies used a single partner's self-reported behavior to represent the relationship. No significant consideration has been given to whether there is empathy of sexual problems or how the process may be associated with sexual functioning. There have been few publications investigating the concordance of self and partner's perception of a person's sexual dissatisfaction and dysfunction. To the best of our knowledge, only three studies have examined the accuracy of people's perceptions of their romantic partner's sexual satisfaction. These have yielded inconsistent results, with one study suggesting that men tend to overestimate their partner's sexual satisfaction while women do not, and the other suggesting that women tend to overestimate their partner's sexual satisfaction while men do not. Recently, Fallis investigated a community sample of 84 couples and found that partner perceptions of sexual satisfaction were strongly correlated with self-reported sexual satisfaction for both males and females. She also found that males underestimated their partner's levels of sexual satisfaction, while females neither overestimated nor underestimated their partner's sexual satisfaction.
To that end, we inclined to investigate whether and to what extent individual sexual satisfaction of a wife or husband is perceived accurately by their spouse. We specifically hypothesized that male's and female's perceptions of their partner would be significantly and positively correlated with their partner's self-reports.