Are Associations Between Relationship Satisfaction, Emotional Intimacy, and Successful Sexual Aging Gender-Specific?

The present study aims to address three questions. First, is the Successful Sexual Aging Scale a psychometrically valid measure to use in dyadic research? Second, are relationship satisfaction and emotional intimacy associated with older individuals’ (i.e., actor effects) and their opposite-sex partner’s (partner effects) successful sexual aging? Finally, are these actor and partner effects gender-specific, indicating that the association between successful sexual aging and relationship characteristics moderated by gender? Detailed description: Relatedness is widely recognized as one of the most fundamental psychological needs (Ryan & Deci, 2000), and for many people this need is met most profoundly within romantic relationships. Among the social ties people maintain, romantic partners often occupy a central role. Not only because they help fulfill the need for connection, but also because they serve as a secure base in times of stress and support exploration in everyday life (Bowlby, 1969). Over time, shared experiences lead partners to become increasingly intertwined and interdependent (Kenny et al., 2006). Each individual’s needs, thoughts, and motives shape their partner’s behavior and their joint interactions (Kelley & Thibaut, 1978; Rusbult & Van Lange, 2003), influencing satisfaction, commitment, and long-term stability. The quality of romantic relationships has broad implications for both partners. Satisfying and supportive romantic relationships are consistently linked to higher life satisfaction and subjective well-being (Be et al., 2013). Individuals who perceive their partners as close and affectionate report greater happiness, better mental and physical health, and lower levels of psychological distress (e.g., Falconier et al., 2015; Mehulić & Kamenov, 2021, Pietromonaco & Collins, 2017; Reis et al., 2000; Trudel & Goldfarb, 2010). High-quality relationships also facilitate the pursuit of personal goals (e.g., Feeney & Collins, 2015; Tomlinson et al., 2016), buffer the impact of stress (e.g., Balzarini et al., 2020; Bodenmann, 1997; Neff & Karney, 2004) and its adverse physiological consequences (Berretz et al., 2022; Pietromonaco & Collins, 2017), and help mitigate existential concerns such as mortality salience (Florian et al., 2002). Relationship quality shapes another key life domain, sexual satisfaction. Although the link between sexual and relational satisfaction is bidirectional, evidence suggests that relationship satisfaction more strongly predicts sexual satisfaction (Yeh et al., 2006; Vowels & Mark, 2020). Dyadic studies further show that individuals’ relationship satisfaction predicts both their own and their partner’s sexual satisfaction, with stronger effects often observed for men (Yucel & Gassanov, 2010; Sprecher, 2002). In later life, as most older adults remain sexually active and are more satisfied than dissatisfied with their sex lives (Kleinstäuber, 2017), the interplay between relationship and sexual well-being becomes especially salient. Successful sexual aging is a recently introduced process-base concept characterized by the acceptance of, and adaptation to, age-related changes, along with opportunities for sexual expression (Štulhofer, 2025). The concept was recently operationalized (the Successful Sexual Aging Scale; SSAS) and found positively associated with favorable attitudes toward older adults’ sexuality, higher life satisfaction, younger subjective age, and better overall health, and negatively associated with depression, anxiety, and social isolation in two European countries (Štulhofer et al., 2025). Cross-cultural research underscores the importance of sexuality for older adults’relationship quality. For example, women’s sexual interest and pleasure have been tied to greater social connectedness, life satisfaction, and lower levels of depression in four European countries (Štulhofer et al., 2018). Similarly, findings from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing indicate that sexual desire, functioning, and partnered activity are each associated with higher enjoyment of life in older adulthood (Smith et al., 2019). Regular sexual activity has been linked to lower relationship strain (Orr et al., 2017) and to better quality of life among both partnered and single older adults (Laumann et al., 2006; Flynn & Gow, 2015). More recently, successful sexual aging levels were positively associated with relationship satisfaction (Štulhofer et al., 2025). Given that members of a couple are not independent but continuously interact and influence each other (Kenny et al., 2006), it is necessary to explore whether relationship satisfaction and emotional intimacy are substantially associated with both actor’s and partner’s successful sexual aging. In addition, we are interested if these associations are gender-specific. To address these questions, we will conduct a dyadic confirmatory analysis and test the Successful Sexual Aging Scale (SSAS) dyadic measurement invariance. This approach allows accounting for the non-independence of dyadic data (Kenny et al., 2006). Dyadic testing of the SSAS stands in contrast to many measures that have been used in couple research that remain unvalidated in the dyadic context (Sakaluk et al., 2021).