Associations between Affect, Context, and Sexual Desire in Depressed Young Women

We investigated associations of sexual desire with time of day, physical and social context, and positive and negative affect using momentary sampling in 44 depressed young women (mean age = 18). Analyses revealed that depressed young women experienced sexual desire when with their boyfriends and later in the evening. Sexual desire was also positively associated with positive affect. Sexual desire was not associated with negative affect or physical context. This research suggests that sexual desire is experienced by depressed young women in normative developmental social contexts. Our findings may help clinicians and sexual health educators in correcting the myth that depressed women do not have sexual desire.