Whether you enjoy intimacy with your partner or you’re simply trying to avoid a conflict, your reason for having sex may significantly affect the health of your relationship, according to two recent studies.

Generally, couples who have more sex in their relationships see more positive outcomes. According to Psychology Today, both men and women report greater sexual satisfaction and higher levels of overall relationship happiness when they engage in more sex. This belief is found to go both ways: satisfied couples have more sex, and frequent sex leads to an increase in sexual satisfaction.

In a series of two studies, or "daily diary" studies, researchers from the University of Toronto investigated how a person’s motive to have sex makes a difference in the health of his or her long-term relationship.

In the first study, 108 heterosexual dating couples were asked to complete a survey every day for two weeks. On the days that the couples had sex, the partners had to answer 26 questions about their motives and rate them from a scale of one to seven. These questions were divided into two categories of motivation: approach and avoidance. Examples of approach motives include "I want to increase intimacy with my spouse" or "I want to feel closer to my partner.” Avoidance motives included "To prevent my partner from becoming upset" or "To feel better about myself."

These categories were further divided into subcategories: self-focused or partner-focused. The following motivations were reported by the Wall Street Journal:

  1. Self-Focused Approach: To pursue a positive outcome for yourself, such as personal pleasure or to feel closer to a partner.
  2. Self-Focused Avoidance: To evade a negative outcome for oneself — for example, wanting to not feel guilty about saying 'no' to sex.
  3. Partner-Focused Approach: To achieve a positive outcome with your partner, like greater closeness, or to make the partner feel good.
  4. Partner-Focused Avoidance: To avoid conflict with your partner and prevent him or her from feeling angry or disappointed.

The researchers decided to place special emphasis on partner-focused goals since they are found to have the strongest influence on how a relationship pans out over time.

The couples in this study were also asked to report their relationship satisfaction, in addition to their sexual satisfaction and desire each day.

Findings of the first study revealed that when a person’s real reason for having sex was positively oriented, he or she felt more satisfied in the relationship and had a higher level of sexual desire. However, when a person had sex for negative reasons, he or she felt less satisfied sexually and in the relationship

Contrary to popular belief, there was no difference reported when it came to gender. "Men do have higher desire in general, but the motives for sex and the way they make people feel aren't different for men and women," said Dr. Amy Muise, lead researcher of the study and a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto, the Daily Mail reports.

The frequency of sex also did not change the effects that negative reasons had on the overall health of a relationship.

Similar to the results of the first study, the second study found that people who had sex mostly for positive reasons reported higher sexual satisfaction four months later while those who had sex for negative reasons had lower sexual satisfaction and desire. Dr. Muise and her team of researchers followed 44 couples who were either married or living together for three weeks and then conducted the follow-up four months later to evaluate how the reason behind having sex impacted long-term relationships.

Those who are looking to turn up the heat, simply because there's a cold drift in the relationship, might want to first reconsider. Even if couples have sex more often — if it’s for negative motives — the unresolved conflicts will continue and build-up over time. Sex out of guilt will decrease sexual and relationship satisfaction for both partners.

"Unless the sex is highly avoidance motivated, it might be OK in the moment," Muise says. "But you definitely get more benefits from approach motivation."