Sex Life Satisfaction in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Descriptive and Exploratory Analysis

• In Event: 380 - Section on Sociology of Sexualities Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 08. Sexual Experiences

Abstract

Nearly all of the sex life satisfaction literature has dealt with developed-country settings, and nothing has been published on sex life satisfaction in Sub-Saharan Africa. Not only is Sub-Saharan African a substantively relevant area in its own right, but it provides a useful point of comparison for patterns and relations found in developed-world contexts. A brief descriptive and exploratory study of sex life satisfaction in Sub-Saharan Africa was conducted using the World Gallup Poll, a dataset with representative sex life satisfaction data for 31 countries and 25,483 cases. In general, there was little variation in weighted averages across countries, and most of the sample surveyed were satisfied with their sex lives, with the modal score being a perfect 10. Furthermore, what variation did exist could not be attributed to level of economic development. Within countries, sociodemographic associations generally comported with patterns found in other contexts: income, education, and being partnered was generally associated with sex life satisfaction, and for two of the four UN sub-regions (West Africa and East Africa), males were significantly more satisfied with their sex lives than women. The relationship with age demonstrated a curvilinear relationship, with the peak age of sexual satisfaction in the late-20s to early-30s depending on the geographic region. The age pattern was not attributable to health, but combining estimators after a seemingly unrelated regression suggests that 5-30% of the effect of income on sex life satisfaction was attributable to better health.

Author

• Stephen Cranney, Baylor University