The influence of therapist values, religiosity and gender in the initial assessment of sexual addiction by family therapists

Abstract

A total of 400 randomly selected clinical members of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) were randomly assigned to one of four vignette conditions in which sex of the client and two extremes of sexual relationships (married and monogamous or nonmarried with varied partners) were experimentally controlled in a description of sexual interaction between two consenting adults. It was hypothesized that therapist values about sex outside of marriage, gender stereotypes regarding sexual activities, and sex and religiosity of the respondent would influence assessment of sexual addiction in vignettes read for the experiment. Results of the 199 (49%) marriage and family therapists who responded revealed that single male and single female clients with varied partners vignettes were pathologized more than monogamous married male and female vignettes. Male subjects tended to pathologize client vignettes more than female subjects. Highly religious males saw clients as more sexually addicted than did low religious males, low religious females, and high religious females.

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