Background To date, most research on cognitive-affective variables in dyspareunia has focused on the role of negative cognitions such as fear of pain and catastrophizing. More recently, pain and sex researchers have started to examine the influence of positive cognitions as well. However, the associations among positive penetration cognitions, optimism, pain, sexual function, and the experience of sexual distress have, as yet, not been studied in women with dyspareunia. In this study, we examined whether…