Self-esteem and sexual health: a multilevel meta-analytic review.

Sexual health reflects physical, emotional, mental, and social elements of sexual well-being. Researchers often position self-esteem (i.e., global or domain-specific evaluations of self) as a key correlate of sexual health. We present the first comprehensive meta-analysis of correlations between self-esteem and sexual health. Our synthesis includes 305 samples from 255 articles, containing 870 correlations from 191,161 unique participants. The overall correlation between self-esteem and sexual health was positive and small (r =.12, 95% CI:.09,.15), characterised by considerable heterogeneity and robust to different corrections. Sexual functioning (r =.27, 95% CI:.21,.34) was more strongly associated with self-esteem than were safe sex (r =.10, 95% CI:.07,.13) and sexual consent (r =.19, 95% CI:.13,.24), and sexual permissiveness was unassociated with self-esteem (r = −.02, 95% CI: -.05,.008). Most moderators were nonsignificant, although moderator data were inconsistently available, and samples were North American-centric. Evidence of publication bias was inconsistent, and study quality, theory usage, and background research were not reliably associated with study outcomes. Our synthesis suggests a need for more specific theories of self-esteem corresponding to unique domains of sexual, highlighting a need for future theorising and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]