Previous researchers have indicated that military deployments have challenged married couples and contributed to relational strain. It has also been found that veterans in marriages lacking intimacy are at risk of psychological problems and suicide. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to fill a gap in existing research by determining if attachment style, likelihood of disclosure, and demographic variables (age, length of marriage, education, race/ethnicity) predicted marital intimacy for heterosexual married male Iraq War veterans. Attachment theory provided a framework for the study, measuring anxiety and avoidance in veterans, which contributed to secure or insecure styles of relating in marriage. Data were collected using an online survey, compiled from the Experiences in Close Relationships-Relationships Structures, the Likelihood of Disclosure Scale, the Personal Assessment of Intimacy in Relationships, and individual demographic questions. Participants included 353 male heterosexual veterans belonging to military social media networking sites. Results of a stepwise multiple regression analysis demonstrated that self-disclosure and attachment style were the 2 statistically significant predictors of marital intimacy for Iraq veterans. Further, secure and preoccupied attachment style and high levels of self-disclosure explained 38% of the variance of marital intimacy. Demographic variables did not predict marital intimacy in the current study. Social change implications include identifying veterans at risk of low marital intimacy, providing protection through strengthening couples' intimacy before and after deployment, leading to a potential reduction in veteran suicide.

The purpose of this study was to better understand how virtues and values affect marital intimacy. Ten married couples were given a marital satisfaction assessment and participated as individuals in 1-1/2 hour interviews which were audiotaped and then transcribed. Using grounded theory and also the constant comparative method, researchers were able to generate a theory involving a core theme of showing love for self and other, which strongly contributes to increased intimacy. This process is connected to living virtues and to becoming other-oriented. Two different ways of "being" were found to be connected both with showing love, living virtues, increasing intimacy: other-orientation (a focus on the other including her well-being) and self-orientation (a primary concern with meeting one's own needs and desires above all else). These orientations were connected with secure attachment style and insecure attachment styles, respectively. Secure attachment was connected with sets of beliefs and thoughts, affect, and behavior characteristic of this way of being that increase security in the relationship. Orientation and attachment style, whether other-oriented and secure or self-oriented and insecure, seemed to be mutually determining. A Virtue Cycle connected with these processes was described, in which one who lives virtues genuinely towards their partner often experiences an increased love for their partner and closeness in the relationship. The receiver often perceives virtuous actions given by her partner to be a sign of his love for her, which leads to feeling loved and feeling closer, and wanting to give to partner which leads her to increase her living of virtues, increasing her other-oreintation. Living of virtues was generally associated with increased intimacy for both Other-oriented and Self-oriented couples, though increases were greater and more lasting in Other-oriented (OO) couples. Implications are discussed.

Background Relational intimacy is hypothesized to underlie the association between female sexual functioning and various sexual outcomes, and married women and women with sexual dysfunction have been generally absent from prior studies investigating these associations, thus restricting generalizability. Aim To investigate whether relational intimacy mediates sexual outcomes (sexual satisfaction, coital frequency, and sexual distress) in a sample of married women with and without impaired sexual functioning presenting in clinical settings. Methods Using a cross-sectional design, 64 heterosexual married women with (n = 44) and without (n = 20) impaired sexual functioning completed a battery of validated measurements assessing relational intimacy, sexual dysfunction, sexual frequency, satisfaction, and distress. Intimacy measurements were combined using latent factor scores before analysis. Bias-corrected mediation models of the indirect effect were used to test mediation effects. Moderated mediation models examined whether indirect effects were influenced by age and marital duration. Outcomes Patients completed the Female Sexual Function Index, the Couple's Satisfaction Index, the Sexual Satisfaction Scale for Women, the Inclusion of the Other in the Self Scale, and the Miller Social Intimacy Test. Results Mediation models showed that impaired sexual functioning is associated with all sexual outcomes directly and indirectly through relational intimacy. Results were predominantly independent of age and marital duration. Clinical Implications Findings have important treatment implications for modifying interventions to focus on enhancing relational intimacy to improve the sexual functioning of women with impaired sexual functioning. Strengths and Limitations The importance of the role relational intimacy plays in broad sexual outcomes of women with impaired sexual functioning is supported in clinically referred and married women. Latent factor scores to improve estimation of study constructs and the use of contemporary mediation analysis also are strengths. The cross-sectional design precludes any causal conclusions and it is unknown whether the results generalize to male partners, partners within other relationship structures, and non-heterosexual couples. Conclusion Greater relational intimacy mitigates the adverse impact of impaired sexual functioning on sexual behavior and satisfaction in women. Witherow MP, Chandraiah S, Seals SR, et al. Relational Intimacy Mediates Sexual Outcomes Associated With Impaired Sexual Function: Examination in a Clinical Sample. J Sex Med 2017;14:843–851.