Couple Interrelationship: The Contribution of Narcissistic Traits, Intimacy, and Couple Caregiving to Marital Sexual Satisfaction

This study examined the mediating role of couple caregiving and intimacy to narcissistic personality traits and marital and sexual satisfaction. The study assumed that a partner’s marital and sexual satisfaction would be related to their spouse’s marital sexual satisfaction. Self-reporting about history childhood abuse served as a control variable.

Method

Participants: There were 121 heterosexual couples ranging in age from 23 to 49, who were married or had cohabitated for at least 3 years. The participants answered the following six questionnaires: Brief–PNI, assessing narcissistic personality traits; CQ, assessing couple caregiving; PAIR, assessing intimacy; RAS, assessing relationship satisfaction; GMSEX, assessing sexual satisfaction; and CTQ, assessing childhood experiences of abuse.

Results

The first hypothesis assumed there were differences between women and their spouses in marital and sexual satisfaction, the level of sensed intimacy, and concern couple caregiving; the study partially confirmed this hypothesis. The questionnaires revealed a significant difference between women and men in the intimacy, women reported a higher degree of intimacy than men. No difference between men and women in marital and sexual satisfaction and the level of couple caregiving was found. The second hypothesis, which assumed that narcissistic personality traits would be associated with couple caregiving, was confirmed.  The findings indicated that the more narcissistic personality traits reported, the lower the level of concern couple caregiving reported, with a prominent effect of the vulnerable narcissism. The third hypothesis assumed a link between narcissistic personality traits and the level of intimacy. This hypothesis was also confirmed: the study showed a strong correlation between intimacy and narcissistic personality traits, with a prominent effect of the vulnerable narcissism. In the fourth hypothesis, a correlation between couple caregiving and marital and sexual satisfaction was confirmed. The results indicated a positive association between concern couple caregiving and marital and sexual satisfaction. The findings of the study also confirmed the fifth hypothesis which assumed a link between level of intimacy and marital and sexual satisfaction. Likewise, the sixth hypothesis, which assumed a link between spouses regarding marital satisfaction, was confirmed: when marital satisfaction was reported by one partner, the other also reported satisfaction. The seventh hypothesis presumed that an association between the sexual satisfaction of one spouse and the sexual satisfaction of the other was confirmed - when sexual satisfaction was reported by one partner, it was as well reported by the other. The eighth and final hypothesis regarding mediation assumed that narcissistic personality traits would be linked to couple caregiving and intimacy, and that those, in turn, would relate to marital and sexual satisfaction. This hypothesis was partially confirmed: A negative association was found between vulnerable narcissistic personality traits of the husbands and the marital and sexual satisfaction of the female partners via the intimacy levels of the husbands.

Conclusion

The contribution of the narcissistic traits, especially the vulnerable narcissism to the prediction of marital and sexual satisfaction between partners stood out in this study; moreover, it emerged that the association between vulnerable narcissism and marital sexual satisfaction was mediated by the intimacy levels of the partner. Additionally, the differences between the couple regarding the link between intimacy and marital and sexual satisfaction indicates the importance that women attach to intimacy in a relationship, both in the marital dimension and the sexual dimension.

Contribution

The findings of the study may help couple therapists by focusing relationships through the element of intimacy, the consequences of vulnerable narcissism, and the reality of gender differences.