A meta-analysis of studies investigating sexual self-disclosure (i.e., how much people are willing to share about their sexual preferences, attitudes, and history) found that people generally seek to share important facets of their sexuality with their partners. Individuals who are more sexually assertive, more satisfied with sexual communication, and generally prone to self-disclosure were more likely to engage in sexual self-disclosure. The paper was published in the Journal of Sex Research.
People often share information about their own sexual preferences, desires, boundaries, concerns, or difficulties with others. This is called sexual self-disclosure. Sexual self-disclosure occurs in romantic relationships, friendships, therapy, medical consultations, and research settings.
In romantic relationships, sexual self-disclosure is important because it helps partners understand each other’s needs, limits, and expectations. It can improve intimacy and sexual satisfaction when it happens voluntarily, respectfully, and in a context of trust. However, it can also feel risky because sexual topics are private and may expose a person to embarrassment, rejection, judgment, or the misuse of information. Many consider sexual self-disclosure to one’s romantic partner to be core to the development of the relationship, as it involves sharing crucial and sensitive facets of one’s identity.
Study authors Katie O. Knowles and Matthew D. Hammond conducted a meta-analysis to investigate the general level of people’s sexual self-disclosure to their romantic partners and test the extent to which self-disclosure might differ across different domains of sexuality. They also sought to identify the factors that act as facilitators or barriers to sexual self-disclosure.
To frame their research, the authors used Communication Privacy Management Theory. This theory suggests that people constantly manage the boundaries of their private information by weighing the potential benefits of sharing (such as increased intimacy) against the potential costs (such as a partner’s negative reaction or a blow to their own reputation).
To gather their data, the study authors searched published scientific databases—including PsycInfo, Google Scholar, Web of Science, and the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Database—for records using search terms like romantic relationship, self-disclosure, sex, and their various variants. They also included a set of terms related to the contents of sexual self-disclosure, such as preferences, problems, kinks, pornography, and attitudes.
Additionally, the authors searched the reference lists of the studies they found, emailed authors asking for unpublished data, and searched for studies using three commonly applied sexual self-disclosure scales. They also searched the Open Science Framework (a platform where scientists post data about their studies and study plans) for preregistered study plans and publicly available datasets. The search resulted in a total of 28 research reports presenting the results of 30 studies, encompassing data from 9,239 participants.
From the research reports, the study authors concluded that people, on average, tend to disclose a moderate-to-high amount of sexual information to their romantic partners. This included information about sexual attitudes and values, sexual history, sexual difficulties, sexual preferences, and solo-sexual behavior. Notably, there was no evidence that people disclosed sexual information of one type more than information of other types; people were just as likely to share their attitudes as they were to share their solo behaviors.
Individuals who reported greater sexual communication satisfaction, higher sexual assertiveness, and who were generally more prone to self-disclosure tended to engage in more sexual self-disclosure behaviors. Aside from these three, the study authors identified 14 additional psychological factors associated with greater or lower sexual self-disclosure.
Perceived higher threat to a partner or relationship, attachment avoidance, and attachment anxiety were associated with lower levels of sexual self-disclosure. Conversely, factors associated with higher levels of sexual self-disclosure included sexual satisfaction and frequency, relationship satisfaction, the (perceived) importance of sex and disclosure, and attitude similarity between partners. Interestingly, the researchers found that relationship length had no significant impact on how much a person disclosed.
“Our findings offer novel support for the theoretical claim that people seek to share important facets of their sexuality while retaining some privacy over their sexual information and suggest that people weigh the benefits against the costs of disclosing facets of their sexuality to their partners,” the study authors concluded.
The study contributes to the scientific understanding of the ways people communicate their sexual attitudes, preferences, and needs. However, the study authors note that the studies they analyzed mostly included only a single member of a romantic pair and did not account for the dynamics of the couple or their broader social context. This limited the ability of the analyzed studies to fully capture the shared environment of participants’ relationships or the extent to which sexual self-disclosure was reciprocal.
The paper, “Meta-Analyzing People’s Self-Disclosure of Sexual Information to Romantic Partners,” was authored by Katie O. Knowles and Matthew D. Hammond.