Love in Quarantine: Sexting, Stress, and Coping During the COVID-19 Lockdown

Bianchi, Dora; Baiocco, Roberto; Lonigro, Antonia; Pompili, Sara; Zammuto, Marta; Tata, Daniele Di; Morelli, Mara; Chirumbolo, Antonio; Norcia, Anna Di; Cannoni, Eleonora; Longobardi, Emiddia; Laghi, Fiorenzo

doi:10.1007/s13178-021-00645-z

Cited by 17 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…Those who were single (40.4%) reported a greater frequency of risky sexting behaviors, compared to the others. A total of 16.7% of respondents, who were in a non-distance relationship during quarantine, reported the lowest frequency of emotional sexting behaviors, probably because of the emotional support received from their partners (Bianchi et al, 2021 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The experimental form of sexting was not predicted by COVID-related stress while it was predicted by an adaptive coping strategy (i.e., social support) and lower tendency to find emotional support in religious practices. It also found an indirect relation between COVID-related stress and experimental sexting mediated by social support, so that, it seems that engaging in experimental sexting behaviors could represent an adaptive coping strategy by which people during quarantine looked for affection and support in their relationship in order to face COVID-19 related stress (Bianchi et al, 2021 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Pandemic-related stress was positively associated with avoidance coping and negatively associated with problem solving. In such a stressful situation like the pandemic, people, especially those with poor problem-solving abilities, can adopt a more dysfunctional coping strategy (i.e., emotion-oriented) rather than problem-oriented (Bianchi et al, 2021 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Finally, it was found that COVID-related stress, not turning to religion, and adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies were predictors of emotional sexting. Authors suggested that emotional sexting can be adaptive, if it is the result of looking for social support to face COVID-related stress, or maladaptive, if it is the outcome of avoidance strategies to cope with pandemic-related stress or when it is adopted when no appropriate problem-oriented solutions are available (Bianchi et al, 2021 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…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). Bianchi et al (2021) investigated the relationship between COVID-related stress, coping strategies, and three forms of sexting: experimental, risky, and emotional. Sexting is experimental when sexual contents are shared with a trusted partner (Wolak et al, 2012;Eleuteri et al, 2017); riskyrelated with other dysfunctional behaviors like substance usewhen sexual contents are shared with strangers (Morelli et al, 2021); and emotional, when sexting is aimed at reducing negative feelings (Bianchi et al, 2019).…”

Section: Using Sex As a Coping Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Eleuteri

Alessi²,

Petruccelli³

et al. 2022

Front. Psychol.

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The COVID-19 pandemic and its related restrictions significantly impacted individuals' health, wellbeing, and security. Isolation, limitation of movement, social distancing, and forced cohabiting have had a strong influence on all areas of people's lives as well as on their sexuality. Investigating how the COVID-19 outbreak and its consequences impacted people's sexuality was the primary aim of this review. Particularly, we focused on: (1) the variables associated with the improvement or the deterioration of individuals' and couples' lives during the pandemic; (2) the use of sex as a coping strategy; (3) the impact of COVID-19 outbreak on LGBT people. Results have shown that the worsening of sexual life seems to be related to couples' conflict, emotions and psychological difficulties, being female, being single or away from the partner, being a health care worker, and having children. Moreover, a detrimental effect on sexuality was associated with stress, forced cohabitation, routine, anxiety and worry about the job and the pandemic, feeling partner distance, being unhappy with their partner, and lack of privacy. On the other hand, improvements in sexuality were associated with living happily with a partner, being happy and satisfied with a partner, feeling less stressed and more bored, having more free time, having fewer recreation opportunities, and having minor workload. During the pandemic, there was an increase in using sex toys, pornography consumption, masturbating, and trying sexual experimentations. Among LGBT people, an increase was found in the number of casual sexual partners potentially due to the perceived lower likelihood of transmission through sex. Moreover, the increase in sexual activity may have represented a coping strategy to quarantine-related distress.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Using Sex As a Coping Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

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

Eleuteri

Alessi²,

Petruccelli³

et al. 2022

Front. Psychol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Young Love “Locked Down”: Adolescent and Young Adult Perspectives on Sexting During the Covid-19 Pandemic in England

Setty,

Dobson

2023

Arch Sex Behav

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There were limited opportunities for in-person social, intimate, and sexual interactions in England during 2020–2021, due to restrictions imposed by the UK government in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. While previous studies examined the effects of lockdown on intimate relationships, there is less qualitative research regarding young people’s perspectives on and experiences of digitally mediated intimacy (sexting) during the period. This paper discusses findings from focus groups with 80 adolescents and interviews with 38 young adults that explored the topic. Analysis identified a normalization of non-consensual distribution of intimate images within adolescent peer culture and a reluctance to report or intervene in response to incidents of non-consensual distribution that are witnessed or experienced. The adolescent girls and young adult women also described other forms of unwanted and invasive image-sharing and requests for images. Young adults held various perspectives on sexting during lockdown, with some describing sexting as unfulfilling and/or “risky” and others sharing experiences of using sexting to generate intimacy and, among some, engaging in unwanted sexting with partners. By considering both adolescent and young adult perspectives obtained through focus groups and interviews, the study highlighted how group-level norms and meanings surrounding the risks and rewards of sexting may be reproduced or reworked as individuals transition from adolescence to young adulthood. The study underscores the need to support adolescents and young adults in cultivating healthy digital sexual cultures and interpersonal relationships.

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Turning to Religion During COVID-19 (Part I): A Systematic Review, Meta-analysis and Meta-regression of Studies on the Relationship Between Religious Coping and Mental Health Throughout COVID-19

Pankowski

Wytrychiewicz-Pankowska

2023

J Relig Health

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The COVID-19 pandemic and the many associated socio-economic changes constitute a stressful event that required adaptation to new, dynamic, and often threatening conditions. According to the literature, coping strategies are one of the factors that determine a person’s degree of adaptation to stressful situations. A systematic review and meta-analysis was performed on the relationship between religious coping and selected indicators of mental health. Due to the large amount of data, this work has been divided into two parts: this first part discusses positive mental health indicators, while the second discusses negative mental health indicators (Pankowski & Wytrychiewicz-Pankowska, 2023). A systematic review of PubMed, Science Direct, the Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, the Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects, and Google Scholar databases was carried out. In addition to the synthesis of information obtained from the research, a meta-analysis of correlation was also performed to determine the strengths of the relationships between the analysed variables, and selected moderators were assessed using meta-regression. Quality of life, well-being, satisfaction with life, happiness, and post-traumatic growth were the positive mental health indicators considered. Meta-analyses indicated a statistically significant relationship between positive religious coping and flourishing (well-being) with overall correlation values of 0.35 [0.30; 0.40]. Further calculations also indicated a relationship between negative religious coping and flourishing − 0.25 [− 0.34; − 0.15]. Data synthesis shows associations between religious coping and such indicators as satisfaction with life and post-traumatic growth, but these issues require further investigation.

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Love in Quarantine: Sexting, Stress, and Coping During the COVID-19 Lockdown

Cited by 17 publications

References 59 publications

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

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

Young Love “Locked Down”: Adolescent and Young Adult Perspectives on Sexting During the Covid-19 Pandemic in England

Turning to Religion During COVID-19 (Part I): A Systematic Review, Meta-analysis and Meta-regression of Studies on the Relationship Between Religious Coping and Mental Health Throughout COVID-19

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