The role of age difference in marital and sexual satisfaction

Backgrounds & Marital and sexual satisfaction is affected by many factors; one of these factors is age difference of spouses. In some societies, like Iran, sexuality-related studies and sufficient information is not available because of socio-cultural and political limitations and because the concept of marital satisfaction is acknowledged sexual language in Iranians and therefore conversation on this issue is not acceptable and admirable. The aim of this research was to determine the level of marital and sexual satisfaction in the objects and its association with the age difference of spouses. This descriptive-analytic study was conducted in 2007 in Tehran, continuous sampling was used to recruit 292 married men and women aged 19-58 from selected hospitals in western Tehran while visiting their hospitalized relatives. Sometimes the participants were married couples. Standard marital (Enrich) and sexual questionnaires (Hudson) were used for data collection. Chi-square test was used to determine relationship between sexual satisfaction and marital satisfaction of couples with age difference. Results showed that most participants were completely satisfied (96.6) with their marital and sexual lives (63.4). X2 test showed that marital satisfaction (p= 0.03) and sexual satisfaction (p= 0.04) are significantly related to age difference of spouses. The results showed that sexual satisfaction and marital satisfaction are associated with age difference of spouses, it is recommended to train people in centers such as schools and universities; and in the consulting meetings before marriage to focus on the proper age difference as an important factor in sexual and marital satisfaction.