Is Sexual Intercourse Related to Mood and Relationship Quality? Results from Electronic Daily Diary Data in Cebu, Philippines

Michelle J. Hindin, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Socorro A. Gultiano, University of San Carlos

We examine the association between sexual intercourse with mood and relationship quality in the past 24 hours based on daily reports collected from 90 couples using mobile phones in Cebu, Philippines. Each participant had the mobile phone and answered questions for approximately 4 weeks. We used sex stratified mutlitvariate logistic models with random effects to account for repeated measures for each person. In the preceding 24 hours, men who had sex had higher anxious mood scores, while women reported lower depressive, angry and fatigued mood scores, and a higher vigorous mood score. Both men and women reported significantly higher scores on feeling love for their partner and feeling trust and support from their partner if they had sexual intercourse in the same 24 hours. We find that sexual intercourse is related to mood and relationship quality. Next, we will examine these associations at the couple level.