Maintaining Sexual Desire in Long-Term Relationships: A Systematic Review and Conceptual Model

The most universally experienced sexual response is sexual desire. Though research on this topic has increased in recent years, low and high desire are still problematized in clinical settings and the broader culture. However, despite knowledge that sexual desire ebbs and flows both within and between individuals, and that problems with sexual desire are strongly linked to problems with relationships, there is a critical gap in understanding the factors that contribute to maintaining sexual desire in the context of relationships. This article offers a systematic review of the literature to provide researchers, educators, clinicians, and the broader public with an overview and a conceptual model of nonclinical sexual desire in long-term relationships. First, we systematically identified peer-reviewed, English-language articles that focused on the maintenance of sexual desire in the context of nonclinical romantic relationships. Second, we reviewed a total of 64 articles that met inclusion criteria and synthesized them into factors using a socioecological framework categorized as individual, interpersonal, and societal in nature. These findings are used to build a conceptual model of maintaining sexual desire in long-term relationships. Finally, we discuss the limitations of the existing research and suggest clear directions for future research

Maintaining Sexual Desire in Long-Term Relationships: A Systematic Review and Conceptual Model

<p>The most universally experienced sexual response is sexual desire. Though research on this topic has increased in recent years, low and high desire are still problematized in clinical settings and the broader culture. However, despite knowledge that sexual desire ebbs and flows both within and between individuals, and that problems with sexual desire are strongly linked to problems with relationships, there is a critical gap in understanding the factors that contribute to maintaining sexual desire in the context of relationships. This article offers a systematic review of the literature to provide researchers, educators, clinicians, and the broader public with an overview and a conceptual model of nonclinical sexual desire in long-term relationships. First, we systematically identified peer-reviewed, English- language articles that focused on the main-tenance of sexual desire in the context of nonclinical romantic relationships. Second, we reviewed a total of</p> <p>17</p> <p>© 2018 Authors. Published by OEAPS. This article is open access under the license of CC BY-NC-ND (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). Expert evaluation under the guidance of the Scientific Committee of the Open European Academy of Public Sciences.</p> <p>International Conference "Social Sciences: Achievements and Prospects" 03. 2018</p> <p>64 articles that met inclusion criteria and synthesized them into factors using a socioecological framework categorized as individual, interpersonal, and societal in nature. These findings are used to build a conceptual model of maintaining sexual desire in long-term relationships. Finally, we discuss the limitations of the existing research and suggest clear directions for future research.</p> <p>The question of what maintains sexual desire in long-term relationships and the tendency for it to decrease over time has long been a topic of interest to researchers, educators, clinicians, and the broader public. It has also been repre-sented in literature, media, and the arts across cultures. Although this has led to several studies examining factors associated with sexual desire, there has not been a synthesis of the literature conducted in this area, nor do we have a conceptual model for future research to build from currently.</p