A Study of Factors Influencing Sexual Communication Between Young Married Couples of Ong’ata Rongai Town, Kajiado County, Kenya

Abstract

This study investigated the factors influencing sexual communication between young married couples of Ong’ata Rongai Town of Kajiado County, Kenya. It assessed how economic factors, language and sexual vocabulary; factors of culture, personality and gender; explicit TV and social media images; family and social groups influenced couple sexual communication. The theoretical framework was provided by two closely related theories of Interpersonal Communication and one model, namely, the Social Penetration Theory; the Relational Dialectics Theory and the Johari Window Model, with close reference to the objectives of the study. Purposive sampling was used in selecting research sites and respondents. Qualitative research techniques used in the study were in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and key informant interviews. These were administered on 64 respondents. The data volume was reduced and coded manually into word tables to identify and spell out the major themes, recurrent patterns, and subthemes which were subsequently presented in narrative form. The study found that many couples were uncomfortable discussing issues related to sex and that both males and females initiated communication for sexual intercourse. To minimize feelings of embarrassment, sexual initiation was transacted verbally or nonverbally through the use of coded language; economic problems took away precious time for sexual intimacy; but culture and gender influenced the way males and females expressed sexual feelings; with males experiencing sexual fantasies after viewing explicit sexual images on TV and social media. Females shared with their peers, the sexual experiences with their spouses, but males kept secrets of their marital bed; peers were more influential than family on sexual communication; but husbands were slow in transitioning to the responsibilities of married life. This study found that all the factors reviewed variously influenced spousal sexual communication. It recommends that young couples be cognizant of the influence that the foregoing factors exert on their sexual intimacy, and thus minimize sexual frustrations that are often experienced by couples early in their marriage. Marriage counsellors should also take into consideration the influence that these factors have on spousal sexual communication as an essential component of the message for newly-wed couples as well as other married couples.