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Study

Women Who Have Sex Early More Likely to Be Dissatisfied Later

C. Price

Written by: C. Price

C. Price

C. Price is part of DatingAdvice.com's content team. She writes advice articles, how-to guides, and studies — all relating to dating, relationships, love, sex, and more.

Edited by: Lillian Castro

Lillian Castro

Lillian Guevara-Castro brings more than 30 years of journalism experience to ensure DatingAdvice articles have been edited for overall clarity, accuracy, and reader engagement. She has worked at The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, The Gwinnett Daily News, and The Gainesville Sun covering lifestyle topics.

Reviewed by: Amber Brooks

Amber Brooks

Amber Brooks is the Editor-in-Chief at DatingAdvice.com. When she was growing up, her family teased her for being "boy crazy," but she preferred to think of herself as a budding dating and relationship expert. As an English major at the University of Florida, Amber honed her communication skills to write clearly, knowledgeably, and passionately about a variety of subjects. Now with over 1,800 lifestyle articles to her name, Amber brings her tireless wit and relatable experiences to DatingAdvice.com. She has been quoted as a dating expert by The Washington Times, Cosmopolitan, The New York Post, Bustle, Salon, Well+Good, and AskMen.

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Women who have sex early in a relationship may set themselves up for greater relationship dissatisfaction down the line, says one study.

Cornell professor Sharon Sassley reviewed data coming out of the 2006 Marital and Relationship Survey, a report that looked at approximately 600 couples who were either living together or married. The couples had low-to-moderate income and all had children who were still minors.

About one-third of the respondents had sex within the first month of their relationship, and Sassler found:

“Women who entered into sexual relationships with their current partners the most rapidly reported significantly lower levels of relationship satisfaction than those who waited somewhat longer before becoming sexually involved.”

“Female respondents reported significantly higher

levels of dissatisfaction than male respondents.”

Sassler noted women “are just more sensitive to relationship-quality issues” than men, a point driven home by the fact both men and women reported lower relationship satisfaction when they rushed into sex, but the study’s female respondents reported significantly higher levels of dissatisfaction than its male respondents.

Sassler also found a connection between early sex and early cohabitation, a factor shown in multiple studies to correlate with lower relationship satisfaction, especially among women.

Ultimately, Sassler concluded the connection between early sex and early cohabitation more likely accounts for the resulting relationship dissatisfaction.

“It’s really how fast you move in with a partner that accounts for these results,” Sassler said.

Source: PHYS.org.