Abstract
Beliefs that individuals bring into their relationships about sexuality can influence sexual passion. In the first study to comprehensively analyze this association, we assessed how sexual destiny and growth beliefs and sexual sanctification influenced harmonious, obsessive, and inhibited passion. Data were collected from a national sample of couples (N = 482 dyads). Utilizing actor/partner interdependence model, we found that men and women’s sexual growth beliefs and sexual sanctification predicted their own and their partner’s harmonious sexual passion. Men and women’s sexual sanctification had a strong association with their own levels of obsessive passion. Sexual destiny beliefs of men and women predicted their own levels of obsessive passion.