MONDAY, Sept. 30, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- There's a strong link between self-esteem and good times between the sheets, a new study suggests. Folks ranking high in self-esteem also tended to rate their sex lives as satisfying, reported a team from the Universities of Zurich and Utrecht, in Switzerland and The Netherlands.
The effect could work in both directions, researchers believe. “People with higher self-esteem tend not only to be sexually active more often, but also to be more satisfied with their sexual experiences,” said lead authors Elisa Weber and Wiebke Bleidorn , from the department of psychology at the University of Zurich. The data was based on interviews conducted over 12 years with more than 11,000 German adults, averaging about 26 years of age.
They were asked questions such as, “How satisfied are you with your sex life?” and “How often have you had sexual intercourse, on average, during the past three months?," or asked to agree or disagree with statements such as "Sometimes I believe that I’m worthless" or “I like myself just the way I am." There was a strong correlation between higher levels of self-esteem and an active, satisfying sex life, the researchers found. The relationship seemed "reciprocal" over time: For example, as levels of self-esteem climbed higher, sex got more satisfying, too.
And as folks enjoyed happier sex lives, self-esteem levels rose. They researchers noted that sexual satisfaction was key to self-esteem, not the actual .
