The importance of sexual communication for sexual satisfaction among adolescents and young adults in The Netherlands

Abstract

Previous studies examined the relationship between more frequent sexual communication between partners and higher sexual satisfaction in non-Dutch populations. The current study contributes to the existing literature by focussing on Dutch youth and exploring whether maturity, more frequent sexual communication with friends and being in a romantic relationship are related to higher sexual satisfaction, and whether this can be explained by more frequent sexual communication with the sexual partner. To test the hypotheses, the dataset of the cross-sectional study ‘Sex under the age of 25’ (2012) including Dutch youth between 12 and 25 years old (N =7841) was used. Results show that more frequent sexual communication with friends is related to more frequent sexual communication with the sexual partner and higher sexual satisfaction. Furthermore, higher sexual satisfaction is associated with being in a romantic relationship. However, sexual communication with the sexual partner could not explain this. Overall, findings suggest that more frequent sexual communication with friends and the sexual partner are related to higher sexual satisfaction. This could be integrated within sexual education and research related to sexuality.