Getting What You Want: How Disclosing Sexual Likes and Dislikes is Associated with Sexual and Relational Outcomes and the Role of Perceived Partner Responsiveness

Sexual self-disclosure to romantic partners is beneficial for maintaining satisfying sexual and intimate relationships for both men and women. However, researchers predominantly conceptualize sexual self-disclosure as a unidimensional construct and have not explored whether disclosing sexual likes versus dislikes are associated with different outcomes. We examined the associations between sexual self-disclosure with different valences and sexual function, sexual and relationship satisfaction, and intimacy, as well as explored whether perceived partner responsiveness moderated these associations. A sample of 625 Chinese participants (315 women; Mage = 32.22, SD = 7.00 years) was recruited, and self-report measures of sexual likes self-disclosure, sexual dislikes self-disclosure, nonsexual self-disclosure, sexual and relational outcomes, and perceived partner responsiveness were collected. Sexual likes self-disclosure was positively related to sexual and relationship satisfaction, intimacy, and female sexual function. In contrast, sexual dislikes self-disclosure was uniquely associated with negative relationship outcomes but showed no unique contributions to sexual outcomes. Perceived partner responsiveness mitigated the negative association between disclosing sexual dislikes and erectile function. Moreover, women who disclosed fewer sexual likes, but perceived greater responsiveness, reported sexual function comparable to women who disclosed more sexual likes regardless of their perceived partner responsiveness. The findings suggest that sexual dislikes self-disclosure involves a tension between rewards and costs, highlighting the importance of distinguishing between the disclosure of sexual likes and dislikes, with implications for relationship counseling and sexual health education.