title: The Year's Best: Interpersonal Elements of Bisexual Women's Most Satisfying Sexual Experiences in the Past Year.
abstract: Sexual satisfaction is commonly defined and discussed in physiological terms of arousal and orgasm. Yet this narrow discourse does not accommodate the complex, multidimensional, and interpersonal aspects of sexual experience. To broaden and deepen our understanding of sexual satisfaction, we employed McClelland's (2014) holistic four-factor framework of sexual satisfaction in a theoretical thematic analysis of 39 behaviorally bisexual women's descriptions of their "best" partnered sexual experiences from the past year. We found women's accounts mapped on to four elements: emotional attunement, emotional gratification, partner gratification, and sensory gratification. Relational and emotional dynamics, including emotional security, quality of interpersonal interaction during and after a sexual encounter, mutuality, intimacy, partner skill, novelty, and communication, were key to participants' best sex experiences. Our findings support a multifaceted model of women's sexual satisfaction that accounts for emotional, relational, and embodied experiences and the diverse relationships and behaviors these might involve.
authors: a School of Social Work, Rutgers , The State University of New Jersey.
authors: Sangeeta
authors: S
authors: Chatterji
authors: b School of Social Work , University at Buffalo.
authors: Laina Y
authors: LY
authors: Bay-Cheng
authors: c Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research , University of Texas.
authors: Vanessa
authors: V
authors: Schick
authors: d Center for Sexual Health Promotion , Indiana University , Bloomington.
authors: Brian
authors: 0000-0003-4491-6603
authors: B
authors: Dodge
authors: e Department of Kinesiology , California State University , Stanislaus.
authors: Aleta
authors: A
authors: Baldwin
authors: f Division of Infectious Diseases , University of Alabama at Birmingham.
authors: Barbara
authors: B
authors: Van Der Pol
authors: g School of Medicine, Division of Adolescent Medicine , Indiana University.
authors: J Dennis
authors: JD
authors: Fortenberry
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001727:Bisexuality / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008875:Middle Aged; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D012747:Sexual Partners / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult