Deepening Sexual Desire and Erotic Fantasies Research in the ACE Spectrum: Comparing the Experiences of Asexual, Demisexual, Gray-Asexual, and Questioning People.
ACE spectrum
Asexuality
Sexual behavior
Sexual desire
Sexual fantasy
Journal
Archives of sexual behavior
ISSN: 1573-2800
Titre abrégé: Arch Sex Behav
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 1273516
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
11 Jan 2024
11 Jan 2024
Historique:
received:
27
05
2023
accepted:
09
12
2023
revised:
08
12
2023
medline:
12
1
2024
pubmed:
12
1
2024
entrez:
11
1
2024
Statut:
aheadofprint
Résumé
Over the past 30 years, an increasing number of people have identified within the asexual (ACE) spectrum recognizing an absence/low/situational sexual attraction to individuals of any gender. The current study aims to deepen the knowledge of sexual desire, erotic fantasies, and related emotions within the ACE spectrum. A total of 1072 Italian volunteers were recruited to take part to the present study via social media. Data were collected from October 2021 to January 2022 using the Sexual Desire and Erotic Fantasies questionnaire and the Sexual Desire Inventory-2. Participants were divided into four groups: asexual, demisexual, gray-asexual, and questioning. Focusing on sexual desire, asexual people reported significantly lower scores than the other groups in all the dimensions except for "negative feelings to sexual desire," while demisexual participants showed the higher scores in all the domains except for "negative feelings to sexual desire." The questioning group reported the highest scores in the "negative feelings toward sexual desire" compared to the asexual and demisexual ones. The asexual group reported significantly lower scores than the other groups in fantasies frequency, fantasies importance, negative emotions, and sharing and experiencing. The demisexual group showed higher frequency of romantic fantasies than the asexual and gray-asexual ones. The results showed some specific patterns of desire and fantasies among the asexual, gray-asexual, demisexual, and questioning groups. These data may provide relevant material to clinicians working with asexual patients who need greater awareness about the diversity and heterogeneity of the sexual experience within the ACE spectrum.
Identifiants
pubmed: 38212438
doi: 10.1007/s10508-023-02784-3
pii: 10.1007/s10508-023-02784-3
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Informations de copyright
© 2024. The Author(s).
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