The role of emotional problems in hypersexuality
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Abstract
Introduction: Hypersexuality is a common problem in clinical practice, especially due to the emotional distress generated by some of its manifestations, such as sex addiction. However, the relationship between discomfort and hypersexuality is unclear and many authors highlight that, in addition to a consequence, emotional distress could be the cause of the search for sex as an emotional regulation strategy. The aim of the present study is to check if there is a relationship between mood and hypersexual behavior in both men and women.
Method: 400 participants (69% male) between the ages of 18 and 40 (M = 26,65; DT = 6,30) completed an online survey that included measures of control of sexual impulses (the Hypersexuality Inventory [HI]) and emotional distress (the Scale Hospital Anxiety and Depression [HADS]). Sociodemographic information was also collected.
Results: We did not find gender differences in the anxiety means, while men presented higher scores on the depression subscale M =7,33) than women (M=6,11; t=3,89, p smaller than ,001) and higher level of hypersexuality (M=43,94 men, M=11,85 women; t=10,36, p smaller than ,001). For men, anxiety (p smaller than ,001) and age (p= ,024) explained 29,2% of the variance of Hypersexuality scores (IH) (F=37,48; p smaller than ,001). For the group of women, only anxiety explained 14% of the variance of the IH scores (F=6,52; p smaller than ,001).
Conclusions: As we can see, anxiety has an important weight in hypersexuality, while in men age also turned out to be relevant in this problem. Taking into account that the majority of preventive interventions are aimed at adolescents / young people, these results demonstrate the need to invest efforts in emotional regulation at all ages, both in prevention and in treatment programs.
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