Romantic Love and Sexual Frequency: Challenging Beliefs

Common conceptions of romantic love suggest that romantic love is associated with increased sexual activity with more frequent sex in the earlier stages of a romantic relationship. To our knowledge, no studies have investigated individual-level factors and sexual frequency using a validated measure of romantic love. This study tested a number of hypotheses about the factors associated with sexual frequency among 720 sexually active young adults experiencing romantic love from the Romantic Love Survey 2022. We hypothesized that relationship duration, the intensity of romantic love and obsessive thinking about a loved one, commitment, and elevated mood would be associated with sexual frequency. Using hierarchical linear regression, controlling for known covariates, we found no significant associations between any of our variables of interest and the frequency of sexual activity. The findings are surprising and highlight how little is currently known about sexual activity and sexual desire among individuals experiencing romantic love.