(Un)forgotten Sex Lives During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Coping Strategies That Work and the Role of Experience.

Available literature points to a worsening trend in sexual functioning, desire, and satisfaction during the pandemic. Nevertheless, virtually no empirical research was conducted on the mechanisms of coping with the pandemic's impacts on sex life. Thus, the purpose of this exploratory study was to examine a variety of coping mechanisms and their perceived usefulness by people who have and have not tried these coping strategies to maintain and enhance their sex lives during the first year of the pandemic. The cross-sectional data were collected using an online survey methodology (N = 420; 66.9% women) and analyzed utilizing exploratory factor analysis, analysis of variance, and multiple regression. The results revealed nine factors/coping mechanisms (based on 59 items/strategies), including goal-setting strategies, risk and experimentation strategies, relational strategies, caution and logistical strategies, creativity and innovation strategies, substances and context-related strategies, online and technology strategies, diversion strategies, and educational strategies. Consistently, across all the specific coping strategies and overall coping mechanisms, people who tried them found them significantly more useful than those who had not tried these coping strategies. Moreover, a higher diversity of tried strategies per coping mechanism consistently and significantly predicted the perceived usefulness of that coping mechanism. These results emphasize the crucial role of experience with coping mechanisms and show that amidst COVID-related adversity and challenges, many people found ways to adapt their sex lives and enjoy silver-lining opportunities. This exploratory study offers promising evidence for potential sexual coping strategies during times of stress that could be informative for clinical practice and education.

Sexual Coping Mechanisms During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Their Determinants of Use, Usefulness, and Effects on Sex Life.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on many people's sex lives. The ways people cope with these adverse impacts are an urgent area that needs to be recognized by sexual health researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. Thus, this study investigated sexual coping mechanisms during the pandemic while clarifying their determinants of use and usefulness and examining their impacts on the quantity and quality of sex life. Methods: The cross-sectional data (N = 675) were collected using an online survey methodology in February-May 2021. The data were analyzed with one-sample and independent-samples t-tests, one-way between-subjects ANOVA, and multivariate multiple regression. Results: This study identified eight sexual coping mechanisms during the pandemic, including creativity and pleasure, diversion, goal-setting, relational, educational, caution and logistical, online and technological, and innovation and experimentation strategies. All the coping mechanisms were used and rated significantly useful, albeit to different degrees. Gender, availability of a sex partner, the existence of children, and age served as determinants of different coping mechanisms' scope of use and degree of usefulness. The coping mechanisms predicted the frequency of sexual activity, sexual desire, and satisfaction with sex life during the pandemic. Conclusions: This study's results can help scholars and practitioners prevent or mitigate the deterioration of sex life during the pandemics and other crises and stressors. It is essential to train people concerning sexual coping resources and strategies to protect their sexual wellbeing and quality of life. Policy Implications: Health researchers, practitioners, and policymakers must consider maintaining sexual health as an essential service. Recognizing sexual health, rights, education, and counseling is a prerequisite for appropriate prevention measures during the pandemic. It is vital to ensure the availability of proper resources supporting people's sexual coping processes during and after the pandemic.

Psychological, Socio-Demographic, and Logistical Factors Associated With Changes in Sex Life After Over a Year Into the COVID-19 Pandemic.

This study examined changes in sex life about a year into the COVID-19 pandemic for both partnered and non-partnered individuals and identified the determinants of these changes. The results of an online survey (N = 675) reflect a significant decrease in the frequency of intimate and sexual behaviors and declines in sexual desire, quality, intimacy, diversity, and satisfaction. This study also showed that socio-demographic characteristics, psychological factors, and the logistical impacts of the pandemic explain trends in people's sex lives during the pandemic. This study contributes to understanding the long(er)-term nature, scope, and determinants of changes in sex life during the pandemic.

Laughing off the Stereotypes: Age and Aging in Seniors' Online Sex-Related Humor.

Background and Objectives: Focusing on sex, the most salient topic featured in ageist jokes, this study aims at exploring the extent to which seniors' own humor reflects common ageist stereotypes or rather echoes contemporary consumer society representations of seniors' sexuality. Research Design and Methods: The study was based on a quantitative content analysis of 300 humorous sex-related messages posted during one full year by members of 14 leading online communities for seniors. Results: Findings indicated that whereas the portrayal of older adults in humor typically relied on negative ageist stereotypes, their representation in seniors' online sex-related humor depended on the social identity of the butt of this humor. If it was an in-group member (oneself, another community member, or the community as a whole), the portrayal was rather positive, but when the butt belonged to the out-group (older adults in general), the depiction was far more ageist. Nonetheless, the representation of older butts of humor was generally more positive than that of the younger ones. Discussion and Implications: These findings suggest that seniors tend to identify with current cultural representations of sexuality in later life and use sex-related humor as a personal means of resisting ageism. They apply two principal strategies: Distancing-reproducing certain ageist stereotypes by ascribing them to other older adults, but less so to their own group and even less than that to themselves-and equalizing older and younger individuals, even according the former an advantage regarding sexuality.

Toward the Tailoring of Sexual Health Education Messages for Young Women: A Focus on Tourist Experiences.

Perceived anonymity and decreased influence of sexual double standards in tourism provide female travelers with opportunities for sexual experimentation and risk taking. The purpose of this study was (a) to identify the clusters of risk takers among young women based on their perceptions of and motivations for sexual risk taking in tourism and (b) to profile the clusters with respect to the psychological, sexual, demographic, and tourist characteristics. The data were collected through an online survey of 853 women (age in years: M = 23.5, SD = 6.67). Five clusters of sexual risk takers emerged based on their factor-analyzed risk perceptions and motivations. These clusters were interpreted as (a) diversely motivated broad risk perceivers; (b) fun-seeking broad risk perceivers; (c) diversely motivated physical risk perceivers; (d) anonymity- and empowerment-seeking risk disregarders; and (e) unmotivated broad risk perceivers. Women in these clusters differed in their intentions to engage in sexual risk taking in tourism, sensation-seeking propensities, perceptions of tourist characteristics, levels of sexual experience, and demographic backgrounds. Results suggest tailoring sexual health promotion messages based on cluster affiliation, leveraging cluster-specific risk perceptions, motivations, and personal characteristics. This study provides recommendations for individually tailored, context-specific, age-appropriate, and gender-sensitive sexual health education programs.

Antecedents of Young Women's Sexual Risk Taking in Tourist Experiences.

The purpose of this phenomenological exploration was to shed light on the constellation of factors anteceding young women's sexual risk taking during their tourist experiences. A total of 15 in-depth interviews (1.5 to 2.5 hours each) with 13 women were conducted and analyzed through the lens of transcendental phenomenology. An analysis of antecedent factors revealed a confluence of sociopersonal characteristics (e.g., sexual definitions, attitudes, double standards, and age) and touristic attributes (e.g., the sense of temporariness/ephemerality, anonymity, and fun-oriented mentality depending on length, destination, and type of tourist experience) that underlie women's proclivity for and perceptions of sexual risk taking in certain travel scenarios. These result in myriad effects on physical, sexual health, sociocultural, mental, and emotional aspects of women's health and well-being. While the sociopersonal antecedents highlight the cross-pollination between sex-related perceptions in everyday life and touristic environments, the touristic antecedents emphasize the uniqueness of tourist experiences as the contexts for sexual risk taking. The findings address an underresearched topic in sex and tourism scholarship and offer implications for health education and intervention programs, pointing to the value of constructing the context-specific and gender-sensitive sexual health messages underpinned by the ideas of women's empowerment and sexual agency.