The Relationship between Attachment Styles, Marital Satisfaction and Sex Guilt with Sexual Desire in Iranian Women

Objective: Among a representative sample of married women in the capital of Iran, Tehran, we aimed to determine the association of self-reported sexual desire with (۱) Self-reported attachment styles (۲) Self-reported marital satisfaction (۳) Self-reported sex guilt. Methods: The data were obtained from a total of ۱۹۲ married Iranian women who were selected via multi-cluster sampling method from universities of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation, Tarbiat Modares, and Islamic Azad. The subjects’ sociodemographic data, attachment styles (adult attachment styles index), marital satisfaction (ENRICH marital satisfaction questionnaire), sex guilt (Mosher revised sex-guilt inventory), and sexual desire (Hurlbert index of sexual desire) were collected. Results: Pearson correlation coefficient and regression analysis were used to analyze the data. Findings showed that there is a significant relationship between sexual desire and secure attachment style (r=۰.۲۸۳, P<۰.۰۱), insecure-avoidant attachment style (r=-۰.۳۲۱, P<۰.۰۱), insecure-ambivalent attachment style (r=۰.۱۴۴, P<۰.۰۵), marital satisfaction (r=۰.۵۱۲, P<۰.۰۱), and sex guilt (r=-۰.۴۴۲, P<۰.۰۱). There was also a significant negative relationship between sexual desire and age (r=-۰.۵۵۳, P<۰.۰۱) and marriage duration (r=-۰.۳۴۹, P<۰.۰۱). Age, marital satisfaction, ambivalent attachment style, and sex guilt could collectively explain ۵۲.۵% of the sexual desire variance. Conclusion: Higher scores in secure and ambivalent attachment styles and marital satisfaction are associated with higher scores of sexual desire. However, with increasing insecure avoidant attachment style and sex guilt, the scores of sexual desire decline. Also age and marriage duration are inversely related to sexual desire.

Keywords:

Sexual desire , Attachment styles , Marital satisfaction , Sex guilt