Sexual self-esteem, sexual functioning and sexual satisfaction in Portuguese heterosexual university students

Sexual functioning plays a significant role in an individual's sexual satisfaction; nevertheless, thus far little attention has been paid to the mediating role of sexual self-esteem. The current study aims to analyse sexual self-esteem effect on the relationship between sexual functioning and sexual satisfaction among Portuguese heterosexual university students. Data from 438 students were obtained via online sampling and analysed assessing sexual self-esteem, sexual functioning and satisfaction. The main findings indicated that sexual functioning was a significant predictor of sexual satisfaction. Moreover, sexual self-esteem appears to partially mediate the relationship between sexual functioning and sexual satisfaction. Practical implications for safe sex education programmes for universities are discussed.
This study was conducted at Psychology Research Centre (UID/PSI/01662/2013), University of Minho, and supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education through national funds and co-financed by FEDER through COMPETE2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007653).