Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine links between sexual self-esteem, body image self-consciousness, sexual assertiveness, and sexual satisfaction. Female university students (n = 370) completed questionnaires that measured sexual satisfaction, sexual subjectivity, body image self-consciousness, and personality tendencies associated with sexual awareness and sexual assertiveness. It was predicted that sexual satisfaction would be positively associated with sexual self-esteem and sexual assertiveness and negatively associated with body image self-consciousness. Results of canonical correlation analyses indicate that, contrary to expectations, some aspects of sexual self-esteem and one aspect of sexual assertiveness were linked to lower sexual satisfaction, whereas, consistent with hypotheses, two aspects of sexual assertiveness were linked to higher sexual satisfaction. As expected, body image self-consciousness was linked lower sexual satisfaction. Limitations of the study and avenues for future research are discussed.