Tasha Falconer
Mental health and sexual health are closely related.
As this column has mentioned before, there are many benefits to sexual activity. These benefits, which include better sleep and stress relief, can influence mental health in a positive way. Partnered sexual activity can also directly affect mental health by lowering depression and anxiety.
There is plenty of discussion on the positive mental health benefits of sexual activity within a relationship, but hookups are often seen as having a more negative impact on mental health. Research on this has been mixed. Some research finds a negative connection between hookups and mental health, but others uncover no such connection.
Zhana Vrangalova of Cornell University sought to understand why this may be the case. Vrangalova’s research found that the motives behind hooking up play a significant role in mental health outcomes.Non-autonomous motives include: to feel better about oneself, to avoid unpleasant feelings, as a favour, as revenge, or because of coercion or deceit.
These non-autonomous motives were generally less common than other motives, such as to have fun, for enjoyment, or to learn more about oneself and one’s sexuality.
Participants who hooked up for non-autonomous reasons tended to have lower self-esteem and higher levels of depression and anxiety.Those participants also had more physical symptoms, including aches and pains, allergies, flu symptoms, and sleeping difficulties.
When people hooked up for reasons other than the non-autonomous ones listed above, they had similar levels of depression and anxiety, but had higher self-esteem than those who did not hookup at all.
Vrangalova’s research found that, in general, hooking up is not related to depression, self-esteem, or physical symptoms. These results indicate that there may be no negative long-term impacts of hooking up, and in fact, may be some positive impacts while attending post-secondary institutions.
Want more information about the connections between mental health and sexuality? Check out “Are your sexual and mental health related?”
Photo by Tasha Falconer