The Intimate and Sexual Costs of Emotional Labor: The Development of the Women's Sexual Emotional Labor Assessment.

ABSTRACT: Emotional labor, the act of suppressing or altering one's feelings to enhance another person's well-being, is predominantly performed by women, especially within intimate relationships. Despite its impact on well-being, research on its role in sexuality remains limited. We developed the Women's Sexual Emotional Labor Assessment (WOSELA), a 12-item scale based on themes identified by past qualitative studies. To ensure its reliability and validity, we conducted three studies with women partnered with men, as well as heterosexual single women from the UK and the USA (N = 831). Drawing on exploratory factor analysis in Study 1, four subscales were identified: faking orgasm, performing desire, tolerating discomfort or pain, and partner-referenced sexual satisfaction. Confirmatory factor analys

SUBMITTER: Oschatz T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11782323 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature