BEING HELD or cuddled may reduce anxiety, promote relaxation and a feeling of security, and provide a distinctive type of gratification. Since women are usually held or cuddled before and after coitus, they can use sex as a means of obtaining this type of body contact. But how often do they do so? And is there a correlation between the intensity of their need for body contact and the frequency with which they use sex to obtain this satisfaction? The answers to these two questions, obtained as part of a larger study on the need for body contact, will be presented in this report.

In the larger study, we found that the need to be held and cuddled, like other needs, varies in intensity from person to person and in the same person from time to time. For most women, body contact is pleasant but not indispensible. At