A new study has found that women with a high economic status claim to be more sexually satisfied, suggesting that socioeconomic factors affect sexual satisfaction.
Investigators at the Barcelona Public Health Agency (ASPB) analysed the influence of various socioeconomic factors on the results of the first Spanish National Sexual Health Survey, carried out in 2009 by the Centre for Sociological Research.
This survey, for which 9,850 interviews were carried out, showed that approximately 90 percent of men and women claimed to be very satisfied or quite satisfied with their sex life in general, and that 95 percent were satisfied with the sexual relations they had had during the previous year.
Furthermore, Spanish people claimed to be more satisfied with sexual relations they had with a stable partner (97 percent of men and 96 percent of women) than with a casual partner (88 percent of men and 80 percent of women).
"People of a lower socioeconomic status claim to be less satisfied sexually, which especially applies to women, who seem to be more influenced by these factors," Dolores Ruiz, the main author of the study, explained.
The researcher said that people that have a more disadvantaged socioeconomic status tend to have less satisfying and less safe sexual relations, as well as suffering more experiences of sexual abuse. Furthermore, women usually suffer more experiences of sexual abuse than men and they claim to have less sexual gratification during their first sexual intercourse.
However, people with a higher socioeconomic status seem to have a better awareness of their own needs and a greater capacity for developing their sexuality in a way which is satisfying for them, as well as having greater control over the use of contraception.
The study is published in journal Annals of Epidemiology.