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The Relationship Between Sexual Satisfaction and Psychological Health of Prison Inmates: The Moderating Effects of Sexual Abstinence and Gender

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The Prison Journal

Published online on

Abstract

Research has found a relationship between sexual satisfaction and psychological health in prisoners, although few studies have focused on possible moderators of this relationship. The main foci of this study of a sample of prison inmates were as follows: (a) the association between sexual satisfaction and psychological health and (b) the moderating effects of heterosexual activity level (abstinent vs. non-abstinent) and gender on the relationship between these two variables. In-person interviews were conducted with 82 males and 91 females who lived in separate modules in Spain’s Topas Penitentiary. Sexual satisfaction was a significant predictor of psychological health only for members of the sexually abstinent group. These findings point to the positive effect of sexual satisfaction on psychological health, especially for the inmates in a less favorable sexual situation (i.e., sexual abstinence).