More is not necessarily merrier when it comes to sex, new research shows.
Past studies associated increased frequency of sex with increased happiness. But new research based on surveys of more than 30,000 Americans collected over four decades questions those findings.
Lead researcher Amy Muise explains in a news release from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology:
“Although more frequent sex is associated with greater happiness, this link was no longer significant at a frequency of more than once a week.
“Our findings suggest that it’s important to maintain an intimate connection with your partner, but you don’t need to have sex every day as long as you’re maintaining that connection.”
These findings, published online in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, were consistent for both genders, all ages and all relationship lengths.
The findings are specific to couples in romantic relationships, however. Muise, a social psychologist and postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto Mississauga, notes that researchers found no association between sexual frequency and well-being for single people.
The study did echo earlier studies in one regard: It found that established couples have sex once weekly on average.
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