Daily diary study of adult men’s and women’s event-level sexual motivations and sexual behaviour

Abstract

Background Understanding people’s sexual motivations has long been of public health and health promotion interest. We used daily diaries to examine how adult men’s and women’s event-specific affective sexual motivations were linked to the types and combinations of sexual behaviours chosen in a given sexual event. Methods: Adult men (n = 156) and women (n = 192) completed thrice-daily electronic diaries assessing individual- and partner-specific attributes and non-coital or coital sexual behaviours. Sexual motivations were: interest in sex, feeling in love with partner, wanted to have sex and partner wanted to have sex. The outcome variable was: sexual behaviour type (no sex, one vaginal sex event, one vaginal sex event + any other sex types, multiple vaginal sex events, any other sex types). Mixed-effect multinomial logistic regression modelled the influence of each sexual motivation on sexual behaviour type (Stata; all p < 0.05). ‘No sex’ was the referent in all models; all models controlled for gender. Results: Participants contributed 14 856 total partner-associated diary entries. Most (54%; women: 56.5%, men: 51.2%) were associated with no sex; when sex occurred, the most common behaviour type was one vaginal sex event (13.1%) for women and other sex types (16.4%) for men. Wanting to have sex or perceiving a partner wanted to have sex were the strongest predictors of sexual behaviour type, and were associated with a greater number of reported sexual behaviours. Conclusions: Event-specific sexual motivations are associated with the choice to have sex, and with variation in the chosen sexual behaviours.