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New research suggests that women who received sexually objectifying messages from their families while growing up tend to view themselves more as objects as young adults, a mindset that was in turn linked to more difficulty refusing unwanted sex, communicating sexual desires, and experiencing orgasm. The authors propose that these early family experiences may lead women to internalize an outsider’s view of their bodies, which could make it harder to assert their sexual needs. The study was published in Psychology of Women Quarterly.
Sexual objectification occurs when a person is valued primarily for their physical appearance and treated as an object of sexual desire rather than a complete human being. While this is often discussed as a broader cultural issue, many women first encounter these pressures within their own homes. Sexual objectification in the family of origin involves hearing comments from relatives about body shape, receiving pressure to look attractive, or witnessing family members make sexualized comments about other women.
“Women are subjected to chronic and multiple forms of sexual objectification throughout their lives, in which their bodies are valued for their physical appearance and sexual appeal and treated as sexual objects,” Dawn M. Szymanski, a professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Greta Hacker, a doctoral student at the university, told PsyPost, summarizing the theory their work builds on. “Sexual objectification experienced early in life can be especially impactful.”
According to objectification theory, a framework the study draws on, women who are repeatedly exposed to these attitudes often begin to view themselves through the same critical lens, a process known as self-objectification. Instead of focusing on how they feel or what they are capable of, individuals who self-objectify tend to constantly monitor their own physical appearance from an outsider’s perspective.
Previous research has documented the negative mental health outcomes of being treated as a sexual object. For instance, a study covered by PsyPost in 2017, which was also led by Szymanski, indicated that women working in sexually objectifying restaurant environments experienced higher levels of anxiety and disordered eating.
Less is known about how objectifying experiences within the family shape a woman’s sexual well-being later in life. The research team aimed to explore how early family messages might translate into young women’s sexual experiences. Specifically, the authors wanted to see if these experiences influenced sexual agency, which is the ability to freely communicate sexual desires to a partner and refuse unwanted sexual activities.
“Previous research indicates gender disparities in sexual functioning,” the researchers explained. “For example, heterosexual women are less likely to report experiencing orgasm during sexual activity with another person than heterosexual men.” The authors cite a 2018 national survey in which 65% of heterosexual women said they usually or always orgasm during partnered sex, compared with 86% of lesbian women and 95% of heterosexual men.
“Past research also indicates that psychosocial factors are more important in understanding these disparities than physiological factors,” the researchers noted. “Our study extends this line of research by applying objectification theory and research on the importance of early family environments to increasing our understanding of factors associated with sex-related outcomes in young adult college women.”
The researchers also looked at orgasm, an important component of sexual pleasure and a strong predictor of sexual satisfaction. The psychological and relational aspects of sex play an important role in whether women experience orgasm. Supporting this, a 2026 study of Italian adults indicated that women’s orgasms are heavily tied to relationship dimensions like emotional closeness and how much partners agree on important matters in their relationship.
Szymanski and her team suspected that by fostering self-objectification, early family experiences might interrupt a woman’s ability to focus on her own pleasure and communicate her needs, setting the stage for fewer orgasms.
To investigate these associations, the researchers surveyed 700 young adult women at a university, recruited through a psychology research pool in exchange for course credit. The participants had an average age of about 19, and the vast majority identified as White and heterosexual. Sixty-two percent were first-year students, 56% were in a romantic relationship, and all had prior partnered sexual experience. They completed a series of online questionnaires assessing their past and current experiences.
The survey included a measure asking how often family members made comments about their appearance or the bodies of other women while they were growing up. The questionnaire also measured the women’s current levels of self-objectification, their anxiety about how their bodies look during sex, and their ability to assert their sexual boundaries and desires. A subset of 533 women who had engaged in sexual activity over the previous month answered questions about how frequently, easily, and with how much satisfaction they experienced orgasms. The researchers controlled for relationship status in their analysis, as being in a committed relationship often influences sexual communication and satisfaction.
The findings point to a pattern connecting early family messages to current sexual behaviors. Women who reported more sexual objectification in their families tended to report more self-objectification as young adults, a moderate association. The links described below, from family experiences to sexual agency and orgasm, were smaller.
Self-objectification also statistically linked family experiences to lower sexual agency. Women who reported more family objectification tended to self-objectify more, and that was in turn associated with more difficulty refusing unwanted sex and communicating their sexual desires to partners. Family objectification was also directly linked to more difficulty refusing unwanted sex, even after accounting for self-objectification.
When looking at the women who had recently engaged in sexual activity, the researchers found that sexual objectification in the family was indirectly linked to lower rates of orgasm. This connection operated through a chain of psychological and behavioral factors. Higher self-objectification was linked to less ability to refuse unwanted sex and communicate sexual desires, which was in turn associated with fewer orgasms, less satisfaction with orgasms, and greater difficulty reaching climax. Overall, the full statistical model explained 21% of the variation in the women’s orgasm scores.
“Our findings suggest that experiencing sexual objectification in one’s family of origin is important in understanding women’s sexual experiences and sexual functioning in young adulthood,” the authors concluded.
Self-objectification was linked to more anxiety about body image during sex, but this anxiety was not a statistically significant predictor of orgasm once the women’s ability to communicate and to refuse sex was taken into account. The authors called this surprising, since earlier studies had pointed to body self-consciousness as a key link, and suggested that what a woman does during sex, such as voicing what she needs, may matter more for orgasm than how she feels about her body.
As with all research, there are a few things to keep in mind. The study relied on the women’s own reports, including recollections of family experiences from years earlier, which may not always be accurate. Because the data was collected at a single point in time, the results cannot establish a timeline of cause and effect. It is possible that other unmeasured factors play a role in these dynamics.
The sample also consisted primarily of young, White, heterosexual women attending a university. The findings might not apply to women from different cultural backgrounds, sexual orientations, or age groups. Future studies tracking individuals over several years could provide evidence for how family messages shape sexual development over time.
The study, “Sexual Objectification in Family of Origin, Self-Objectification, Sexual Agency, and Young Adult College Women’s Orgasm,” was authored by Dawn M. Szymanski and Greta Hacker.