A recent study examining how adults in love navigate the balance between solo masturbation and intimacy with a partner identified three distinct behavioral profiles. The findings suggest that a person’s motivations, attitudes toward solo sex, and the subjective pleasure they experience all determine how these two forms of intimacy coexist. The study was published in the International Journal of Sexual Health.
Historically, solitary sexual behavior has been treated as a secondary indicator in relationship science. Many people believe that high rates of masturbation in a relationship indicate underlying love troubles. Researchers classify this idea as a compensatory model of sexuality. This model posits that solo acts primarily function to replace infrequent or unsatisfying shared intimacy.
Alternative frameworks exist to explain these choices. The complementary model proposes that solo acts, along with relationship intimacy, help improve an individual’s overall sexual health. In this framework, masturbation functions as an independent source of pleasure rather than a reaction to a failed relationship.
To understand these dynamics at a structural level, researchers often assess the sexual pleasure cycle. This biological model categorizes human sexual response into two major psychological components. The first element is the motivation or inner desire for stimulation. The second is the pleasure you feel when you reach climax.
Taken together, these psychological dimensions help explain why individuals maintain certain intimate relationships. Assessing these aspects requires going beyond simple behavioral aggregations to measuring actual individual satisfaction. First author Oscar Cervilla, a researcher at the University of Jaén, worked with colleagues at the University of Granada to measure these variables.
Researchers launched an online study from December 2022 to March 2023. They collected responses from 1,028 Spanish adults, including 475 men and 553 women between the ages of 18 and 75. All participants identified as cisgender and pursued exclusively heterosexual relationships. All participants are currently in a romantic relationship.
The survey asked participants to detail how often they share intimate relationships or have sex alone. They also completed a questionnaire designed to measure their level of solitary sexual desire, the internal motivation to arouse oneself. Other questions assessed emotional reactions to climax and negative attitudes held about masturbation.
Based on the findings, the team used statistical modeling to group participants into three specific profiles. The first group included individuals who reported high frequencies of both intimate relationships and solo sex. The second group consisted of people who reported rarely sharing intimate relationships but high rates of having sex alone. The final group included people who were actively involved in intimate relationships with their partners but had a low percentage of solo activities.
Participants in the first category fit smoothly into the complementary model of sexuality. These people had lower scores for negative attitudes toward masturbation. Both men and women in this group reported that pure physical pleasure motivated their solo habits.
Their solo activities were not caused by a lack of access to a partner, as they reported a higher frequency of shared intimacy. These people also recorded the highest levels of emotional satisfaction and physical reward during solo climaxes. The strong positive feedback they received at Climax may have encouraged them to maintain the habit of frequent soloing.
The researchers noted several demographic trends within this first group. Many of these participants did not live with a romantic partner. Having a completely separate living environment may give you the privacy you need to explore solo habits without facing the judgment of a potential partner. Furthermore, women in this profile generally began exploring masturbation at an earlier age compared to other participants.
The second group exhibited habits that closely matched the compensatory model. For these participants, high rates of solo sex were directly linked to relationship deficiencies. Both men and women in this category frequently cite a lack of shared intimacy with their partner and feelings of dissatisfaction as their primary motivation for masturbation.
The data revealed specific gender nuances within this compensatory profile. Men in this category reported using pornography primarily as a tool for emotional avoidance. This suggests that men may rely on solo behavior to distance themselves from relationship troubles. Men in this group also reported experiencing their first sexual relationship at an older age than the majority of the sample.
Women in this second profile were older and tended to have longer relationships. As the length of a relationship increases, shared intimacy often naturally decreases, so older women may shift their focus to solo activities. This change allows them to fulfill their sexual needs independently, even if the relationship dynamics have changed significantly.
The third profile departed from both trends, characterized by high shared intimacy and very little solo activity. These people reported the lowest levels of solitary sexual desire. In the absence of internal motivation to stimulate oneself, sexual needs seem to be fully satisfied by shared activities with a partner.
People in this third group had the most negative attitudes toward masturbation of the entire sample. Men in this group tend to be older and perhaps focus solely on shared intimacy because it provides a more valuable relational context. On the other hand, women in this category reported discovering masturbation at a much later age than the rest of the women surveyed.
The results regarding educational attainment were not statistically significant across the sample. Education does not appear to determine the frequency with which participants develop individual or shared intimate relationships. Age and personal attitude played a much greater role in shaping everyday life.
The study relied on completely cross-sectional data, meaning the researchers captured these trends at a single point in time. Because responses serve as momentary snapshots, the results cannot prove that relationship dissatisfaction actively causes changes in solo behavior. Reliance on online recruitment also introduces sampling bias, as people who are willing to respond to online surveys about sexual health may have more progressive views than the general population.
Expanding this research to include diverse sexual orientations and gender identities could provide a more comprehensive view of human sexuality. Future studies could follow couples over several years and observe exactly how these behavioral profiles evolve. Life events such as the birth of a child or the accumulation of stress in a relationship can easily shift one person’s profile into another. Exploring these changes in context may ultimately allow therapists to provide better guidance to people navigating intimacy conflicts.
The study, “Mapping Partnered Sex and Solitary Masturbation: A Cluster Analysis,” was authored by Oscar Servilla, Carmen Gómez Berrocal, and Juan Carlos Sierra.
