SEXUAL SATISFACTION AMONG KOREAN-AMERICAN COUPLES IN THE MIDWESTERN UNITED-STATES

One hundred couples composed of American husbands and Korean wives fro m the midwestern United States were surveyed with respect to sexual sa tisfaction. Though the responses of spouses were correlated highly, hu sbands were more satisfied with the quality of the sexual relationship than were wives. As found previously with more general populations, s elf-esteem and higher levels of positive regard, communication, and co hesion were related to higher sexual satisfaction for both husbands an d wives. For wives, higher socioeconomic status and younger age were r elated to higher sexual satisfaction, as was the husband's being a cur rent or retired member of the US military. Cultural factors were also important; conflicts over sexual practices related to cultural differe nces, though limited to about 10% of the subjects, were related to sex ual satisfaction for both husbands and wives. Wives' English proficien cy was related slightly to sexual satisfaction, but not husbands' prof iciency in Korean. For husbands only, marital conflict over cultural d ifferences and rejection by relatives and friends were related negativ ely to sexual satisfaction. Clinical implications of the results are d iscussed.