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Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Why did God let this Happen? Assessing the Spiritual Impacts of Sexual Addiction on Intimate Female Partners: A Qualitative Investigation
Sexuality and Culture, Vol.28, pp.2113-2142
2024
Appears in UniSC Supported Open Access Outputs
Abstract
Recent years have seen a rise in research on sexual addiction (SA) and compulsive sexual behaviour (CSB). In the literature, these concepts describe an emerging field of study that may encompass a range of interpersonal and communal consequences for concerned individuals, their intimate partners, families, and society. Taboos surrounding SA/CSB often shroud the subject in shame and ignorance. Despite growing scholarly interest in SA/CSB, few studies have analysed intimate partners’ lived experiences in depth, and no other research has investigated the spiritual impacts of SA/CSB on intimate partners. This descriptive phenomenological study addresses this knowledge gap. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with female partners (primary participants; n = 12) and professional counsellors (supplementary participants; n = 15). The analysis reveals that following discovery/disclosure, SA/CSB may affect women via complex and multifaceted spiritual consequences. Significantly, most women did not receive validation or safety from their faith communities. Instead, many reported experiencing a range of spiritual impacts, including changes in their faith, fear of stigmatization, the perception of pastoral pressure to ‘forgive and forget’, ostracism from their faith communities, and/or a sense of anger directed towards God as the perceived silent co-conspirator who permitted the deception to continue undiscovered, sometimes over years or even decades. The study’s findings point to salient opportunities for faith communities to provide more targeted support and assistance during healing and recovery.
Details
- Title
- Why did God let this Happen? Assessing the Spiritual Impacts of Sexual Addiction on Intimate Female Partners: A Qualitative Investigation
- Authors
- Fakri Seyed Aghamiri - Alphacrucis CollegeJohannes M. Luetz (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Law and SocietyKarenne Hills - Alphacrucis College
- Publication details
- Sexuality and Culture, Vol.28, pp.2113-2142
- Publisher
- Springer New York LLC
- Date published
- 2024
- DOI
- 10.1007/s12119-024-10221-3
- ISSN
- 1936-4822; 1095-5143
- Copyright note
- This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
- Data Availability
- The research data are not publicly available because participants were informed prior to interviews that their data would be stored securely and confidentially.
- Organisation Unit
- School of Law and Society
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991024895102621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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