A newly published study has shed light on just how many times couples in what they describe as a ‘happy’ relationship tend to have sex each week.There’s a general idea that as people get older or when kids come into the picture, bedroom activity tends to slow down. But interestingly, previous research has already shown that this assumption doesn’t always hold true.
This research was published in the Journal of Family Psychology and led by a team working with the German Family Panel. They examined data from over 2,000 mixed-sex couples, with most participants falling within the 20 to 39 age range.
Most of the couples involved had been together for about 10 years on average. A large portion were either married or had been living together under the same roof for quite some time.
One particularly eye-opening takeaway was that 86 percent of the respondents said they felt highly satisfied when they had sex about once a week.
Matt Johnson, a professor of family science at the University of Alberta and one of the study’s co-authors, explained: “We know, on average, couples who have sex more often tend to report being happier in their relationships (at least up to having sex weekly – more frequent sex doesn’t boost satisfaction), but certainly there must be diversity underlying that.”
He went on to elaborate in an interview with PsyPost, saying: “To me, two big takeaways are 1) regular sexual interaction is a characteristic of highly satisfying relationships for the majority of couples and 2) these highly satisfied couples reported having sex about once a week.”
“Couples may feel pressured to have sex multiple times a week to maintain relationship satisfaction but our results suggest that wasn’t the case in our sample.”