According To Research, Routine Sexual Relations Can Strengthen Emotional Bonds Between You And Your Partner

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JAKARTA - Sex plays an important role in relationships. New findings show that having sex regularly turns out to have a goal of uniting a partner.

A study on the newlyweds, published in Psychological Science, reported by Medical Express, Thursday, November 30, shows that the couple will experience flowering after having sex up to two days after intercourse. And this feeling of joy is associated with the quality of the relationship that persists in the long term.

"Our research shows that sexual satisfaction continues to increase 48 hours after sex," said psychologist Andrea Meltzer (Florida State University), lead author of the study.

"And people with stronger sexual feelings" that is, people who report higher levels of sexual satisfaction 48 hours after sex reported higher levels of relationship satisfaction a few months later," Meltzer joked.

Researchers theorize that sex plays an important role in building emotional ties with a partner. But most adults report having sex with their partners every few days, not every day.

Meltzer and her colleagues hypothesized that sex can increase sexual satisfaction in the short term, maintain ties between partners, and increase satisfaction with partner relationships in the long term.

To test their hypothesis, the researchers examined data from two independent longitudinal studies, one with 96 newlyweds and the other with 118 newlyweds. All couples have completed at least three consecutive days of a 14-day daily record as part of a larger study.

Every night, before bed, newlyweds were asked to report whether they had sex with their partner that day. Despite the answer, they were also asked to assess how satisfied they were with the sex life of the day and how satisfied they were with their partners, their relationship, and their marriage that day (on a 7-point scale, where 1 = not at all, 7 = very).

The couple also completed three wedding quality measurements at the beginning of the study and once again at the follow-up session about 4 to 6 months later.

On average, participants reported having sex on 4 of the 14 days of research, although the answers varied widely between participants.

Importantly, sex on certain days is associated with long-lasting sexual satisfaction. Having sex on certain days is associated with sexual satisfaction on the same day, which is associated with sexual satisfaction the following day and even two days later.

In other words, participants continue to report an increase in sexual satisfaction 48 hours after having sex.

Overall, participants' marriage satisfaction decreased between the start of the study and follow-up sessions 4 to 6 months later. But participants reporting relatively high levels of sexual satisfaction appear to have a better level of sexual satisfaction than their peers, reporting higher initial satisfaction of marriage and a drop in satisfaction that is less sharp in the first 4 to 6 months of marriage.

The same pattern of effects emerged in two independent studies, which provide strong evidence of feelings of joy after sex, Meltzer and colleagues noted. Overall, these findings suggest that sex is associated with the quality of relationships over time through the effects of long-lasting sexual satisfaction.

This research is important because it joins other studies that show that sex serves to maintain the bond between partners, the Meltzer knot.