Advanced search
919
Views
6
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Original Articles

Effects of a Mindfulness Task on Women’s Sexual Response

, , &
Pages 747-757
Published online: 20 Dec 2017

Mindfulness-based interventions are effective at improving symptoms of sexual dysfunction in women. The mechanisms by which mindfulness improves sexual function are less clear. The main objective of our study was to investigate the impact of a mindfulness task on sexual response in women. Forty-one women (mean age = 27.2, SD = 5.6) participated in two laboratory sessions that each included two erotic films and one attention task that were presented in counterbalanced order. Both attention tasks consisted of a six-minute audio recording of either a modified body scan, focusing on genital arousal sensations (mindfulness condition), or a visualization exercise. Subjective and genital sexual arousal were measured continuously during stimulus presentation. The mindfulness task led to greater subjective and lower genital arousal. The agreement of subjective and genital sexual arousal (i.e., concordance) was greater in the mindfulness condition. Trait mindfulness was related to lower sexual arousal but also greater sexual concordance in women. Mindfulness-based interventions that encourage women to focus on physical arousal sensations in the here and now may be associated with women’s improved sexual function by enhancing feelings of sexual arousal during sexual activity and by increasing concordance between subjective and genital sexual arousal.

Additional information

Funding

This study was financially supported by the Gateway Fellowship Grant of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum Research School PLUS, funded by Germany’s Excellence Initiative (DFG GSC 98/3) awarded to Julia Velten.

Log in via your institution

Log in to Taylor & Francis Online

PDF download + Online access

  • 48 hours access to article PDF & online version
  • Article PDF can be downloaded
  • Article PDF can be printed
EUR 40.00 Add to cart

Issue Purchase

  • 30 days online access to complete issue
  • Article PDFs can be downloaded
  • Article PDFs can be printed
EUR 115.00 Add to cart

Purchase access via tokens

  • Choose from packages of 10, 20, and 30 tokens
  • Can use on articles across multiple libraries & subject collections
  • Article PDFs can be downloaded & printed
From EUR 400.00
per package
Learn more
* Local tax will be added as applicable
 

Related research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.