Sexual Communication and Satisfaction in Young Adults’ Monogamous and Consensually Nonmonogamous Relationships

Despite the growing body of literature examining sexual communication in romantic relationships, diverse relationship structures have been severely underrepresented. This study examined differences in sexual communication and multiple sexual and relational outcome variables between people in monogamous and consensually nonmonogamous relationships. Participants included 576 young adults (ages 18–35 years old) in monogamous or consensually nonmonogamous relationships with at least one committed partner. Participants were asked to complete sexual communication as well as various commonly used sexual/relational outcome measures regarding a partner. Results of t tests and linear regression analyses suggested people in consensually nonmonogamous relationships had greater sexual communication quality compared with people in monogamous relationships. There were no additional differences detected in any of the other study variables. Significant associations between sexual communication and sexual and relational outcome variables were replicated and no differences in these associations based on relationship structure emerged. Implications and directions for future research are addressed.