Relationship between Religion Sexuality and Matrimonial Relationship

There is a well-established and positive association between religiosity and marital satisfaction.What is less clear is the effect of religiosity on marital sexual outcomes, with research findingsthat have run the gamut from negative to positive. Given that most religions teach that marriageis the divinely appointed context for a sexual relationship, religious persons who are married andin sexual relationships could have a different experience with sex than those who are not in amarital sexual relationship. Although the majority of the population in the United States isreligious, sex in religious marriages has received scant research attention. The purpose of thisdissertation is to examine in three manuscripts the association between religiosity, sexuality, andmarital connection.In manuscript one, I look at how doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saintsdovetails with principles of social science in ways that could potentially improve the sexualconnection in these religious marriages. Specifically, I examine how Latter-day Saints can bettersanctify their sexuality through autonomy and relatedness. As member couples dovetail healthyreligious principles with social science principles, such as focusing on avoiding selfishness anddeveloping a self in a larger moral context, they can experience improved marital connection. Instudy two, I research the spontaneous mentions of sexuality in interviews with highly religiousfamilies in the American Families of Faith dataset. These 198 highly religious families comefrom a rich variety of socioeconomic, racial/ethnic, and religious backgrounds.