{"id":30893,"date":"2016-03-10T13:00:57","date_gmt":"2016-03-10T21:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/?p=30893"},"modified":"2016-03-09T10:57:30","modified_gmt":"2016-03-09T18:57:30","slug":"sexuality-study-unusual-sexual-interests-may-be-common","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/sexuality-study-unusual-sexual-interests-may-be-common-0310162","title":{"rendered":"Sexuality Study: \u2018Unusual\u2019 Sexual Interests May Be Common"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Couple<\/a>Results from a study of people in Qu\u00e9bec published in the Journal of Sex Research <\/em>undermine a number of widespread beliefs about sexuality<\/a>, including the preconceived notions that sexual fetishes<\/a> are uncommon and women are less interested in sex than men.<\/p>\n

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5)<\/a> lists eight paraphilic, or abnormal, interests. To qualify for a diagnosis<\/a> these sexual behaviors must reach a point where they cause some distress, but according to the DSM-5, these behaviors are unusual or atypical. The study undermines this claim, providing evidence that at least four paraphilic interests may actually be common in Qu\u00e9bec.<\/p>\n

Are \u2018Unusual\u2019 Sexual Interests Common?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Researchers Christian Joyal and Julie Carpentier, from the Institut Philippe-Pinel de Montr\u00e9al and the Institut universitaire en sant\u00e9 mentale de Montr\u00e9al, conducted phone and online surveys of 1,040 Qu\u00e9bec residents. The participants were representative of the general population and answered a number of questions about their sexual interests and preferences.<\/p>\n

About half (45.6%) of participants were interested in at least one \u201canomalous\u201d sexual behavior, and 33% had participated in the behavior at least once. Among respondents, voyeurism<\/a> (35%), sexual fetishism (26%), frotteurism (26%), and masochism<\/a> (19%) were found to be common desires or experiences.<\/p>\n

\n\t

Find a Therapist for Sex \/ Sexuality<\/a><\/h2>\n\t
\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\tAdvanced Search<\/a>\n\t<\/form>\n<\/div>Male respondents were more interested in paraphilic behaviors than female respondents, but women who reported an interest in sexual submission or masochism had more varied sexual interests. They also reported higher levels of sexual satisfaction. The researchers found an interest in sexual submission was correlated with an overall increase in other sexual interests.<\/p>\n

What Is \u2018Normal\u2019 Sexuality?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The study\u2019s authors caution that mental health professionals<\/a> must know what constitutes normal sexual behavior before labeling certain behaviors as deviant or unusual. They also highlight the difference between sexual paraphilic disorders—which involve partners who do not consent or sexual acts that trouble the person with the paraphilia—and paraphilic behavior.<\/p>\n

A paraphilia is a sexual behavior that may be necessary for sexual satisfaction. For example, a person with a submission paraphilia might not be interested in sex that does not involve sexual submission. Paraphilic behavior, by contrast, is not necessary for sexual satisfaction. People with paraphilic behaviors may only engage in the \u201cunusual\u201d behavior from time to time and may have a wide range of other sexual interests.<\/p>\n

The results can\u2019t be broadly applied to Americans or Europeans, because the team only studied people from Qu\u00e9bec. They believe future research will likely find similar results among other populations.<\/p>\n

References: <\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Joyal, C. C., & Carpentier, J. (2016). The prevalence of paraphilic interests and behaviors in the general population: A provincial survey.\u00a0The Journal of Sex Research,<\/em>\u00a01-11. doi:10.1080\/00224499.2016.1139034<\/li>\n
  2. Paraphilic disorders<\/em>\u00a0[PDF]. (2013). Arlington: American Psychiatric Publishing.<\/li>\n
  3. Quebeckers’ sexual tastes and interests: A new study debunks preconceived notions. (2016, March 9). Retrieved from http:\/\/www.eurekalert.org\/pub_releases\/2016-03\/uom-qst030816.php<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A new study of people from Qu\u00e9bec suggests many preconceived notions of “abnormal” sexual behavior may actually be common in the general population.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2555,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[542,159],"tags":[25,139],"class_list":["post-30893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured-articles","category-therapy-news","tag-psychotherapy-issues","tag-sex-therapy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2555"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30893\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}