New Research Validates Tool for Measuring Betrayal's Impact on Partner Sexuality

New Research Gives Voice to an Overlooked Side of Sex Addiction: The Partner's Experience

When sex addiction research began decades ago, the primary focus was understandably on the person struggling with the addiction itself. Yet addiction never happens in isolation. It reverberates through relationships, and one of the people affected most deeply is often the partner. A study published in Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity takes an important step toward closing a long-standing gap in the research by developing and testing a tool designed specifically to measure that impact.

The study, conducted by Stefanie Carnes and Suzanne O'Connor, examined a newly developed instrument called the Partner Sexuality Survey, or PSS.

A Gap the Field Had Not Yet Addressed

The discovery that a partner has been struggling with sex addiction can be a deeply destabilizing event. It often changes how a partner experiences intimacy, trust, and their own sexuality moving forward. Despite how significant this experience can be, research examining it has been sparse. Prior to this study, only a single qualitative study had explored how this kind of traumatic discovery affects a partner's sexuality.

That left a real gap for both researchers and clinicians. Without a validated tool for measuring this impact, it was difficult to study patterns across large groups of partners, track how these effects show up over time, or compare experiences across different populations.

Building and Testing the Survey

To address this gap, the research team developed a 78 item questionnaire designed to capture the many ways addiction can affect a partner's sexuality. The Partner Sexuality Survey was built to be broad enough to reflect the range of experiences partners describe, from changes in desire and trust to shifts in how they relate to their own bodies and relationships going forward.

Once the survey was developed, the researchers turned to a striking strength of this study: its scale. A confirmatory analysis was conducted using an online sample of 8,667 participants, a sample size far larger than what is typical in this area of research. Correlation and regression analyses were then used to examine how the survey's subscales related to one another, helping the team understand which components of the tool were capturing meaningful, distinct patterns.

Why a Large, Validated Sample Matters

A sample of this size gives researchers something rare in this field: statistical power. With thousands of participants, patterns that might be missed or unreliable in smaller studies can be identified with much greater confidence. It also means the survey's structure was not built or confirmed based on a small or narrow group, but reflects patterns found across a large and varied population of partners.

This kind of large-scale confirmatory work is essential groundwork. Before clinicians can reliably screen for the impact of betrayal trauma on a partner's sexuality, or before researchers can compare findings across studies, they need an instrument that has been rigorously tested. This study provides exactly that kind of foundation.

Opening the Door to Future Research

The authors were clear that this work is a starting point rather than a final answer. The study's findings were framed with an eye toward the future, highlighting several implications for continued research in this area. A validated measurement tool like the PSS makes it possible for future studies to explore questions that have been difficult to investigate until now, including how the impact on a partner's sexuality changes over the course of recovery, and what factors help or hinder that healing process.

Work like this reflects a broader and welcome shift within the field: recognizing that a full understanding of sex addiction requires understanding its impact on everyone touched by it, not only the person with the addiction.

Supporting Research That Sees the Whole Picture

AFAR is committed to advancing research that captures the full scope of sex addiction, including its effects on partners and families, not just the individual diagnosed. Studies like this one expand what the field is able to measure, understand, and ultimately treat.

If you would like to support AFAR's continued investment in this kind of comprehensive, evidence-based research, consider making a donation today.

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Source: Carnes, S., & O'Connor, S. (2015). Confirmatory Analysis of the Partner Sexuality Survey. Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity, 23(1).