title: The Relationship between Sexual Cues and Sexual Desire in Women.
abstract: Sexual desire is one of the most studied dimensions of sexual response. There is extensive research on bio-medical, psychosocial, and relationship predictors of desire particularly in women. Despite this accumulated knowledge, there is a lack of studies investigating the ability of sexual cues to predict sexual desire. A sample of 546 heterosexual and premenopausal Portuguese women, aged between 18 and 53 years old, completed a web survey assessing socio-demographic variables, medical conditions, psychopathology, relationship dimensions, sexual cues and sexual desire. Findings from hierarchical regression analyses indicated that sexual cues significantly predict sexual desire. In particular, explicit/arousal cues (β = .321, p < .001) were the most significant predictor of female sexual desire. Additionally, somatization (β = .188, p < .001), relationship satisfaction (β = .159, p < .001), anxiety (β = -.165, p = .006), and antidepressant medication (β = -.094, p = .014) were also significant predictors. Results emphasize the strong ability of explicit/arousal cues to predict sexual desire in women above and beyond other known factors. These findings suggest that the assessment of sexual desire problems in women as well as treatment approaches should take into consideration the role of sexual cues and particularly explicit/arousal cues.
authors.affiliation: a Faculdade de Psicologia e Ciências da Educação, Universidade do Porto , Porto , Portugal.
authors.forename: Diana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Barreto
authors.affiliation: a Faculdade de Psicologia e Ciências da Educação, Universidade do Porto , Porto , Portugal.
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vilarinho
authors.affiliation: a Faculdade de Psicologia e Ciências da Educação, Universidade do Porto , Porto , Portugal.
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nobre
keywords: Bio-medical and relationship predictors; Sexual cues; Sexual desire