A new study from the Department of psychology at the University of Oslo published in Journal of Sex Research, reveals that masturbation frequencies are influenced by gender, parenthood, sexual orientation, and life stage — but not by religious affiliation or educational level.
The findings highlight the autonomous nature of masturbation as a sexual practice and how it is related to personal and relational contexts.
Studied long term masturbation habits
While many assume masturbation is primarily influenced by the frequency of partnered sex, long-term studies on this topic have been missing. Not many researchers have access to data on masturbation where research participants have been followed up multiple times in their lives.
Jumping on this unique chance, researchers from the University of Oslo have now filled this gap by following over 2,500 Norwegians from age 19 to 50. The research participants were surveyed three times in their lives, for the first time during late adolescence in 1999 and the last time in 2020 during mid-adulthood. Using advanced statistical methods - multilevel growth curve modeling - the study tracked how often participants masturbated each month from late adolescence to mid-adulthood.
It is well-known that men tend to masturbate more than women. And also in this new study, the researchers found that women masturbate, on average, 4 times a month whereas men engage in solo-sex roughly 11 times a month.
Not a substitute for sex
Yet, for the first time, the researchers found distinct gender differences in patterns of masturbation throughout life: For women, masturbation frequency gradually increased into their early 30s before declining slightly. For men, masturbation frequency remained largely stable across adulthood. Importantly, these trends remained even after taking the frequency of partnered sex into account, suggesting that masturbation is not simply a substitute for sexual activity with a partner.
Family life circumstances did influence the patterns, but mostly so for men. For example, men with a partner show different masturbation trajectories than single men. This was not the case for women. Men’s masturbation frequency also depended on the amount of sexual fantasizing while women’s trajectories remained unaffected by this.
Parenthood also mattered, for both women and men: people who remained childless showed a greater increase in masturbation frequency until around age 30, followed by a sharper decline than those who became parents.
Sexual orientation matters
– This is likely because people with a partner or children have less time and space available to masturbate, says Anna Ivanova, researcher at the Department of Psychology.
Sexual orientation also matters. Participants who identified as heterosexual reported less frequent masturbation than their nonheterosexual peers across all ages. By contrast, religious affiliation and level of education were not related to masturbation frequency across time.
These findings demonstrate that masturbation is not just an isolated behavior, but one that reflects people’s life situations, according to Ivanova.
Everyday pleasures
– It is a form of sexual expression that persists independently of whether or not people are sexually active with others.
The study has implications for how we understand adult sexual development and well-being.
– Normalizing masturbation as part of adult sexuality across the lifespan can contribute to a more inclusive and sex-positive understanding of human intimacy”, Ivanova adds.
Future research may explore how masturbation interacts with relational and sexual satisfaction, and how it fits into broader patterns of adult sexual health.