It has long been believed that bondage-discipline, dominance-submission, and sadism-masochism (BDSM) are all in some way connected to psychopathology. However, a number of more recent research indicate that BDSM practitioners have generally decent psychological health.
Aim: This study compared the results of practitioners of BDSM with a control group on a variety of key psychological traits.
Methods: In order to achieve this goal, online questionnaires were fully completed by 902 BDSM and 434 control individuals. eta or Pearson's correlation and two tests of independence with and Cramer's V as effect size measurements were used to analyse associations. Using analysis of covariance and a partial 2 as the effect size measure, group differences were examined. To account for multiple testing, a priori contrasts were assessed using = 0.01; all other tests used = 0.05, two-tailed.
Principal Outcome Metrics: The Neo Five-Factor Inventory, the Attachment Styles Questionnaire, the Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire, and the Subjective Well-Being Scale were all employed in the research (World Health Organization-Five Well-being Index).
Results: The majority of the data point to the BDSM practitioners having more positive psychological traits than the control group; they were less neurotic, more extraverted, open to new experiences, conscientious, and less rejection sensitive, and had better subjective well-being but were less agreeable. If there were any differences between the four groups, the dominant group often received higher BDSM scores than the submissive group, while the controls had the least positive results.
We get to the conclusion that BDSM can be viewed as a form of leisure rather than the manifestation of psychopathological processes.
