The COVID‐19 pandemic has affected nearly every area of daily life, including romantic relationships. With the pandemic still ongoing, this study reviewed the existing scholarly literature to document the status of empirical research on how COVID‐19 has affected couples during its first year. Studies were identified through searching five databases as well as sources of gray literature. Overall, 42 studies on committed romantic relationships during the first year of the pandemic were identified. The mapping process revealed four main themes: (1) relationship quality; (2) sexuality; (3) couple daily adjustment; and (4) intimate partner violence. The findings suggest that the way romantic relationships were affected by the pandemic depends on a variety of demographic, individual, and couple‐level factors. Implications include a call for both the development of evidence‐based interventions that consider the current findings and further research to continue exploring the clinical implications of future findings to promote healthy intimate relationships during the ongoing global pandemic.

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is strongly associated with sexual dysfunction. However, research about male survivors’ sexual functioning after CSA is lacking. The current systematic review searched for all studies that reported on CSA and sexual function among male survivors to answer the following questions: Do male survivors of CSA experience sexual dysfunctions, and if so, to what extent? Does CSA increase the risk of developing sexual dysfunctions in adulthood among men? Studies were identified by searching seven databases and sources of gray literature. The selection criteria included empirical studies involving a population of adult men who experienced CSA before the age of 18. Studies focused on sexual functioning and sexual development after the abuse. Twelve studies met the selection criteria. While some studies confirmed that CSA is a risk factor for sexual dysfunction in adult male survivors, including low sexual drive, problems with arousal, and difficulties with orgasm and pain, other studies failed to find a correlation between sexual dysfunction and CSA. The wide range in quality, methodology, and definitions of CSA and sexual function presented challenges to consistent analysis of the studies and to determine the impact of CSA. Further research is required to fully understand the effect of CSA on adult men’s sexual function.

Background: Gamification is correlated with increased motivation and engagement of learners and is increasingly being incorporated into library instruction. Opportunities for librarians to learn and practice principles of gamification can be helpful for those desiring to integrate gamification into instruction. This report describes the development and delivery of an interactive special content session at MLA ’18, the 2018 Medical Library Association annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, focusing on principles of low-tech game design for health sciences library classroom instruction.Case Presentation: The special content session, titled “Design, Play, Learn: A Special Content Session to Design a Game for Database Instruction,” was designed and delivered using multimodal instruction (e.g., flipped classroom, didactic component, active learning) that also incorporated principles of design thinking. A pre- and post-survey was given to all participants at the beginning and end of the session to measure confidence and desire to incorporate gamification into instruction and as a formative feedback indicator for instructors. Participants reported increased confidence and desire to use games for library instruction after participating in the session. A selection of games were uploaded to a shared content folder designed for course participants as an ongoing repository for ideas and communication.Conclusions: For librarians who are interested in integrating principles of gamification into library instruction, attending a relatively short hands-on workshop can facilitate learning and confidence around prototyping and creating games for use in library instruction. We intend to improve upon the workshop and offer it again in additional contexts, based on direct observations of the session and participant feedback.

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Although the association between childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and various aspects of sexual difficulties is well established, little is known about the association between CSA and adult sexual fantasies. The current rapid review searched for studies that reported on CSA and sexual fantasies through PubMed, PsycInfo, and Violence & Abuse Abstracts databases. Included in the review were empirical studies involving a population of adults who experienced CSA before the age of 18 and which reported on survivors’ sexual fantasies. The impact of CSA on adult sexual fantasies was found across three main dimensions: prevalence of sexual fantasies, content, and appraisal of the fantasies. Overall, 13 studies that addressed the sexual fantasies of survivors of CSA were identified. This review found an association between CSA and adult sexual fantasies, indicating that survivors of CSA are more likely to report: unrestricted sexual fantasies, more atypical sexual fantasies, more sexual fantasies that involve force, and more fantasies that include elements of sadomasochism, submissiveness, and dominance. Survivors of CSA also begin having sexual fantasies at a significantly earlier age and report their sexual fantasies as being significantly more intrusive than do nonabused subjects. When treating CSA survivors, therapists should acknowledge that a history of CSA can impact the survivors’ sexual fantasies. Further studies with adult survivors of CSA are needed to determine how these sexual fantasies develop subsequent to the abuse, how they are perceived by survivors, and what their effect is on survivors’ and their partners’ sexual health, function, and satisfaction.

Background and Objectives The digital world offers opportunities for sex and love and also reflects societal stereotypes regarding sex and love among older adults. The aim of the current review is to look at the ways older adults use digital media for sex and love and also at digital media’s representations of older adults. Research Design and Methods We searched for studies published in English that used qualitative and/or quantitative methods, with findings based on empirical data from individuals 55 years of age or older. The following datasets were searched: PubMed, Web of Science, PsycINFO, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and CINAHL. Bibliographies of all relevant studies were searched. Titles and abstracts were reviewed, and selected articles were extracted independently by two reviewers. Results A total of 1,819 records were retrieved. After removing duplicates, 1,488 records remained. Of these, 70 records remained for full-text screening, and a final count of 15 records was included for synthesis. Discussion and Implications The present review highlights major research gaps in the field. Although studies have indeed focused on the online dating scene among this cohort, they have ignored older adults’ sexuality in favor of other aspects (e.g., love, companionship). Representations of this cohort in terms of love and sex are also lacking, and diversity is hardly addressed. Additional research is needed to examine how older adults use digital media for reasons related to love and sex, and how the media mirrors societal stereotypes regarding sex and love among older adults.

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Currently, dating apps are one of the most popular platforms for meeting romantic and sexual partners. However, little is known about the potential for sexual harassment on these platforms. In the current scoping review, we sought to examine what is known about sexual harassment facilitated through smartphone dating apps. We searched for studies that reported on sexual harassment via dating apps through PubMed, Web of Science, PsycInfo, Communication Abstracts, Sociological Abstracts, and IEEE Xplore databases. Twelve studies addressed the risk of sexual harassment on dating apps. We found that sexual harassment when using dating apps is prevalent and ranges between 57 and 88.8%, with two populations being at higher risk: women and individuals who identify as a sexual minority. In terms of forms of harassment, sexual harassment via dating apps can take place online (e.g., being sent unsolicited images, or “dick pics”) or offline (e.g., a face-to-face meeting that was arranged on a dating app). Experiencing sexual harassment on dating apps is associated with higher levels of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, loneliness, early childhood maltreatment, less perceived self-control, and lower self-esteem. Some studies suggest that experiencing sexual harassment on dating apps reflects social structures and appears differently in different groups (e.g., among sexual minorities). More research is needed to capture the prevalence of adult sexual harassment via the use of dating apps, the different forms of harassment, risk and protective factors, and social and cultural structures that facilitate this kind of sexual harassment.