A prospective study of relationship and sexual satisfaction during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of dispositional vulnerabilities and external stressors.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic had a strong impact on many aspects of life, particularly social relationships. Although there is some evidence regarding short-term effects of the pandemic on cohabitating couples or individuals, it is unclear to what extent these effects persist over time and whether they also apply to noncohabitating individuals. The purpose of this study was to investigate changes in relationship and sexual satisfaction among both cohabitating and noncohabitating individuals during the first year of the pandemic and to examine the extent to which these changes could be accounted for by personal vulnerabilities, pandemic-related stressors, and their interaction. We assessed relationship and sexual satisfaction longitudinally with a cross-national sample (N=2859) that included five prospective measurement time points and analyzed the data with multilevel models. We observed a decrease in relationship satisfaction over the course of the study, especially among noncohabitants. Sexual satisfaction, in turn, conformed to a quadratic trend among noncohabitants while changing only minimally in cohabitating individuals. Of the individual vulnerabilities examined, attachment avoidance was the greatest risk factor for both relationship and sexual satisfaction. Among pandemic-related stressors, mobility restrictions had a negative impact into the relationship and sexual satisfaction of noncohabitating individuals. Although the pandemic generally showed negative effects on close relationships, these effects varied depending on the type of couple (cohabitants or noncohabitants), the component of relationship satisfaction (relationship satisfaction or sexual satisfaction), the time interval (curfew period or not), and also individual dispositions (especially attachment avoidance).