Attachment Injury Severity, Injury-related Stress, Forgiveness, and Sexual Satisfaction in Injured Adult Partners.

An attachment injury can occur when one partner violates the assumption that they will provide comfort and caring during a moment of increased need. For injured partners, unresolved attachment injuries can underlie an enduring stress reaction and lower relationship satisfaction. However, no research has examined the associations between the perceived severity of the injury and sexual satisfaction, a central component of relationship well-being. In this cross-sectional study, we examined the direct and indirect associations between the perceived severity of the attachment injury and sexual satisfaction via injury-related stress symptoms and levels of forgiveness, in injured partners. A total of 145 adults who reported having experienced an attachment injury in their current relationship completed self-report questionnaires measuring injury severity, event-related stress, forgiveness, and sexual satisfaction. An indirect association between the perceived severity of the attachment injury and sexual satisfaction through higher injury-related stress and lower forgiveness was found via a path analysis. Results suggest that fostering forgiveness and attending to injury-related stress may be key toward sexual satisfaction in couples where a partner reports an attachment injury. Clinical implications of these results are discussed in light of theory and potential treatment strategies for addressing an attachment injury in couple's therapy.

Exploring Variations in Individuals' Relationships to Sexual Fantasies: A Latent Class Analysis.

Sexual fantasies represent a vast and highly personal dimension of human sexuality that remains understudied empirically. This article used a person-oriented approach to examine the reactions of arousal and discomfort that individuals experienced in response to four proposed fantasy scenarios depicting themes of romance, power dynamics (i.e., submission and domination), pain (i.e., sadism and masochism), and sexual violence. Using an online sample of 566 adult participants (250 men and 291 women) from the general population of Canada and the U.S., four classes were identified based on reactions of arousal and discomfort toward the proposed scenarios: Indifferent (relatively low arousal and discomfort to all scenarios, 37%), Romantic (high arousal solely for the romance scenario, high discomfort toward other scenarios, 22%), Enthusiastic (high arousal and low discomfort in response to all scenarios, 26%), and Dissonant (relatively high arousal and discomfort toward all scenarios, 15%). These classes were then compared to examine differences in terms of the following psychosexual characteristics: gender, experiences of childhood sexual abuse, sexual compulsion, and romantic attachment. Findings illustrated distinct patterns of reactions toward fantasies and confirmed the presence of links between reactions toward sexual fantasies, psychosexual characteristics, and traumatic life experiences. This suggests that the relationship between individuals and their sexual fantasies may be indicative of their overall relationship with sexuality.

Insecure Attachment and Sexual Satisfaction: A Path Analysis Model Integrating Sexual Mindfulness, Sexual Anxiety, and Sexual Self-Esteem.

This study examines the intermediary role of three variables (sexual mindfulness, sexual anxiety, and sexual self-esteem) in a path analysis model to explain the association between insecure attachment and sexual satisfaction. A community sample of 543 adults completed an online survey. Results supported our hypothesized integrative model, which explained 44.1% of the variance in sexual satisfaction and presented satisfactory fit indices. This study suggests that the association between attachment insecurities and lower sexual satisfaction could be partially explained by a proximal association with lower sexual mindfulness, which emphasizes the relevance of examining sexual mindfulness during the screening and treatment of people presenting low sexual satisfaction.Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/0092623X.2021.2011808 .