title: The role of religion in shaping sexual frequency and satisfaction: evidence from married and unmarried older adults.
abstract: This study assesses the role of religion in influencing sexual frequency and satisfaction among older married adults and sexual activity among older unmarried adults. The study proposes and tests several hypotheses about the relationship between religion and sex among these two groups of older Americans, using nationally representative data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project. Results suggest that among married older adults, religion is largely unrelated with sexual frequency and satisfaction, although religious integration in daily life shares a weak, but positive, association with pleasure from sex. For unmarried adults, such religious integration exhibits a negative association with having had sex in the last year among women, but not among men.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78705, USA. mmcfarland@prc.utexas.edu
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: McFarland
authors.forename: Jeremy E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Uecker
authors.forename: Mark D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Regnerus
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D012071:Religion and Sex; D012847:Single Person / Q000523:psychology*; D018454:Spouses / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires