Sex and marital intimacy.

The quality of sex and marital intimacy may be related to each other in ways which are not clearly understood. Some theorists have suggested that they vary positively with each other. Others have suggested an independent relationship. Two hundred and fifty couples in the community completed the Waring Intimacy Questionnaire (WIQ). Included in the WIQ is a qualitative assessment of sexual communication and fulfillment in the marriage. Weak positive correlations between sex and total intimacy were found for both husbands (r = .41) and wives (r = .39). A principal components factor analysis revealed separate factor structures for husbands' and wives' data. For the women, a single factor (intimacy) included strong loadings from all facets of intimacy defined. Their degree of sexual fulfillment was included in this factor. For husbands, on the other hand, a second factor (sexuality) accounted for 12.7% of the variance. These results suggest that discrepancies between previous studies may be a function of clinical populations being investigated, or an effect of averaging husbands' and wives' data. The results are discussed in terms of their clinical implications.