Female Sexual Pain and Depression in a Non-clinical Sample of Religious Israeli Jewish Women: Does Religion Make a Difference?

Abstract

The association between female sexual pain (FSP) and various aspects of physical, psychological, and sexual well-being is well-documented in the research literature. Multiple studies have reported a link between FSP and depressive symptoms. This study aimed to examine the possible moderating effect of religiousness on the FSP-depression association among a non-clinical population. A sample of 163 adult Israeli Jewish women in heterosexual marriages, all identifying as religious, responded to an online questionnaire including measures of genito-pelvic pain, depression, and two aspects of religiousness-religious behavior and religious fundamentalism. Male partners also assessed sexual pain and depressive symptoms of the women participating in the study. As predicted, female sexual pain was significantly associated with depression both for the self-assessment and for the partner assessment of these variables. In addition, moderation analysis indicated that religious behavior moderated the relation between FSP and depression for both types of assessments. Similarly, religious fundamentalism moderated the association between FSP and depression for the partner assessments but not for the self-assessments. However, whereas religiousness was predicted to buffer this association, interaction probing indicated that at higher levels of religiousness, the positive association between FSP and depression was significant, whereas when religiousness was lower, this association was not significant.

Keywords: Buffering Effect; Depression; Female sexual pain; Religion.