The Global Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Individuals’ and Couples’ Sexuality

Choose a Girl

Cochran et al. (2000) found that lesbians reported using alcohol more frequently and in greater amounts than heterosexual women. Moreover, homosexual and bisexual men are at greater risk of suicide and depressive symptoms than heterosexual men (Cochran and Mays, 2000). Furthermore, compared to heterosexual men, MSM are more likely to be single (Shilo and Mor, 2020b) and this may lead to an increase in mental distress and perceived loneliness (Shilo and Mor, 2020a). According to WHO (2020), sexual health constitutes individual well-being at a physical, emotional, mental, and social level while sexual dysfunctions can be seen as a condition that prevents people from experiencing satisfaction from sexual activity (Karagöz et al., 2020).

Objective 1: Sample prevalence and significance of self-reported changes in affectionate and partnered sexual behavior

So far, during the COVID-19 pandemic, an increase in alcohol consumption has been reported both in the general population [39, 40] and among university students [41]. Other individual and couple protective factors to maintain mental health during the pandemic included problem-solving skills, positive reappraisal, self-efficacy, intimate partnership, social integration and mindfulness [35–37]. Luxembourg is one of the best-performing EU countries in terms of avoiding the worst of the economic impact of the COVID-19 lockdown, in comparison to other EU countries [2].

Discover content

Moreover, during the social-distancing period, respondents who had casual sex were more likely to use condoms or Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) than before the pandemic (Shilo and Mor, 2020a). On March 11, 2020, the WHO Director-General declared COVID-19 (COronaVIrus Disease 19) a global pandemic (World Health Organization, 2020). All over the world, the primary aim was reducing the spread of the virus by adopting containment measures including mobility and sociality restrictions, and closure of non-essential production activities and services. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the majority of governments around the world began implementing measures to interrupt the spread of SARS-CoV-2.

Is It the Timing? Short-Term Mobility and Coital Frequency in Agbogbloshie, Ghana

• His Quirk, overhaul, allows him to tear things apart and rebuild it to his liking as long as he can touch the object with his hands.
• Finally, respondents who reported no changes were for the most part men, with shorter relationships, or without sons (Costantini et al., 2021).
• Compared to the period prior to quarantine, during lockdown 3.3% of participants reported an increase in sexual activity from 1 to 5 times a week to more than 5 times.
• After reading the full texts, we selected 19 articles for this review, specifically, 14 cross-sectional studies, 2 observational studies, a case-control study, a critical commentary, and a global analysis.

Or you would, if it wasn’t for the fact that he’s self-loving and more than a bit of a jerk. This Autobot paratrooper’s got a mouthful of snark with a bad attitude and little respect for Optimus Prime, harboring a desire to just be on his own or otherwise be in charge himself.— You believed you were a fresh addition to the family, or at least that’s what you thought. It was during a supply run in an abandoned city that Bumblebee and Cade Yeager stumbled upon you. Despite your persistence in tagging along, they eventually decided to take you in. Being an ardent Autobot enthusiast, you couldn’t contain your excitement, but given the relentless pursuit of the Autobots, you had to conceal your interest. Upon reaching a junkyard, a multitude of wrecked cars surrounded you, but it was the towering and ominous bots that instantly grabbed your attention.

Consequently, the amount of money obtained through romance scams has rocketed in recent years (up to $1.3 billion in the US alone, as recorded by FTC in 2023),2 representing a significant, global form of financial crime. These distressors had an impact on LGBT people’s sexuality (Sanchez et al., 2020). Further findings showed a moderate increase in the number of sexual partners among MSM and an increase in casual sex (Shilo and Mor, 2020a; Stephenson et al., 2020). Alongside the boost of consumption of pornography, an increase in sexting was found during the pandemic, that is an increase in sharing messages, photos, and videos with sexual content (Chalfen, 2009; Lehmiller et al., 2020). AI sexting platforms utilize advanced AI technology to generate realistic and responsive conversations, allowing for immersive sexting experiences. These platforms typically offer a range of AI characters and models for users to interact with in a sexual or romantic manner.

Based on these results, the mental health campaigns for declining the prejudice connected to gender to women may focus on the women who have traditional gender role attitudes. With regards to sexual problems, our findings show an increase in sexual problems in those in partnership (either oneself or of the partner) during the pandemic. This result is in line with other studies that have addressed this question. Since the beginning of the pandemic, an increase in sexual problems has been found in a range of populations in different countries, for instance in COVID-19 positive women [27] and in uninfected pregnant women in Turkey [28], in women in the U.S. [29] and in men and women in Egypt [30].

• From a methodological perspective, our use of a large, multinational sample expands the boundaries of what is currently available in the COVID-19 and sexual health literature.
• Our findings also make it clear that the commonness of a behavior does not condone its occurrence.
• These are referred to as online romance fraud (ORF) or romance scams (Whitty & Buchanan, 2016) and they have increased at an alarming rate over the past decade,1 due in large part to the exponential advancement of computer technology and usability of social media platforms (see Topalli & Nikolovska, 2020).
• A total of 557 individuals participated in this study, of who 196 (35.2%) identified their gender as male, 347 (62.3%) as female and 13 (2.3%) as “other”, “neither” or “both” genders.

On average approximately one quarter of adolescents are affected by this problem. This article gives an overview of the phenomenology, symptoms, background, consequences and possibilities for prevention, in order to call for a promising way of combating this previously practically completely neglected problem. The aim is the introduction of comprehensive measures for preventing cyberbullying, the recognition of symptoms and treating the sequelae.

Current data are from time 2 of Dating it Safe, an ongoing longitudinal study of teen dating violence and other high-risk adolescent behaviors. Participants at time 1 (Spring 2010) included 1042 students recruited from 7 public high schools in 4 Houston-area school districts. Study recruitment occurred during school hours in courses with mandated attendance, and both parental permission and student assent were obtained. Assessments at each point occurred during school hours, and students received a $10 gift card for participating.