Correlates of the desire to be held in women

Abstract

Information was gathered on the correlations between the wish to be held and various behavioral patterns and subjective reactions. For this purpose a newly devised, self-realting questionnaire and a few inventories were administered to 112 women while they were patients on an acute psychiatric treatment unit. A strong desire to be held or cuddled correlated with a general learning toward openness in emotional expression. More sopecifically, women with a strong desire to be held (1) were interested in and derived much pleasure from orality, (2) were comfortable with accepting of sexuality, (3) were free to feel and express hostility, (4) responded in a friendly or affectionate manner after imbibing alcohol, (5) responded positively to another form of body contact, ballroom dancing, and (6) found pleasure in tactile behavior of other kinds. Although there was a correlation between the scores on the body contact scale with those on the oral and sexual scales, there were small groups with discordant responses (high BC and low O or S; low BC and high O or S). The significance of these and other findings was discussed.