Sexual Communal Strength Partially Mediates the Associations between Mate Retention Behaviors and Relationship Satisfaction

Abstract

ABSTRACT Mate retention behaviors are associated with several aspects of romantic relationships, but different categories of mate retention behaviors have divergent associations with relationship satisfaction. The present studies examined whether sexual communal strength – which refers to the motivation to meet the sexual needs of one’s partner – mediated the associations that benefit-provisioning and cost-inflicting mate retention behaviors had with relationship satisfaction. We investigated the associations that mate retention behaviors had with relationship satisfaction through sexual communal strength using men’s self-reports (Study 1) and women’s partner-reports (Study 2). We found that sexual communal strength partially mediated the associations that mate retention behaviors had with relationship satisfaction in both studies. Benefit-provisioning mate retention behaviors had a positive indirect association with relationship satisfaction through sexual communal strength in both studies, whereas cost-inflicting mate retention behaviors had a negative indirect association with relationship satisfaction through sexual communal strength in Study 1 but not in Study 2. We explore the reasons why sexual communal strength may play an important role in the connections that mate retention behaviors have with relationship satisfaction.