Investigating the Relationship Between Childhood Sexual Abuse, Marital Satisfaction and Sexual Performance in Iranian Married Women

The present study defines the experiences of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and aims to explain its relationship with satisfaction with married life and sexual performance in Iranian married women.

The statistical population included all married women in Tehran Province, Iran, in 2021 in the age range of 18 to 50 years. According to the study population, 200 people were selected as the sample using the available sampling method and answered the female sexual function index, developed by Rosen et al. (2000), the marital satisfaction questionnaire by Enrich (1989), and the unwanted childhood sexual experiences questionnaire by Stevenson (1998). In the statistical method, the research hypotheses were tested according to the normally distributed research variables, using the Pearson correlation coefficient and multivariate regression.

The results of the Pearson correlation showed a negative and significant relationship between the experience of CSA and satisfaction with married life, along with the two components of sexual pain and sexual desire in the variable of sexual performance (P<0.01). In addition, the multivariate regression results showed that CSA experiences could predict marital life satisfaction. However, only the component of maximum contact in the CSA variable predicted the components of sexual pain and sexual desire in the sexual performance variable (P<0.01).

The experience of CSA in Iranian married women can affect their marital relationship and sexual performance. Accordingly, efforts should be made to identify these people and consider appropriate psychological measures for their recovery because, in Iranian culture, most people hide this incident out of social shame and fear of being dishonored.