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The Impact of COVID-19 on Sexual Health, Sexual Behavior, and Intimate Relationships (4 CE Hours)

$140.00

4 CE Hours

Presented by: Justin Lehmiller, Ph.D.

Recorded workshop available via video on demand

AASECT Category:

Human Sexuality Education
Section E

AND

Section H

The widespread social restrictions put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic and fears of viral transmission significantly disrupted people’s sexual routines and the overall quality of their sex lives (Lehmiller, Garcia, Gesselman, & Mark, 2020). However, as the pandemic has worn on and as vaccines for COVID-19 have become widely available, the impacts have changed. The goal of this presentation is to explore the evolution of sexual and romantic relationships during the pandemic drawing upon Kinsey Institute research conducted over the last two years, with particular emphasis on a demographically representative survey of 2,200 American adults conducted over the summer of 2021. Results point to an overall rise in sexual experimentation and kink, decreased interest in casual sex and multi-partner activities, and improved relationship quality and sexual communication for partners who stayed together. Vaccinated Americans appear to be approaching sex more cautiously than those who are unvaccinated in terms of the intentions to practice safer sex in the future. Vaccination status has also become a screening tool for sexual and romantic partners for many Americans, but especially those who identify as LGBTQ. Overall, the findings reveal that Americans’ sexual and romantic lives have continued to evolve throughout the pandemic and remain changed from pre-pandemic levels in many ways. Practical and clinical implications will be discussed. Clinicians will gain a better understanding of current sexual and relationship challenges, how they vary across demographic groups, and tools for addressing these difficulties.

Learning Objectives:

1) Explain how the pandemic has affected people’s sex lives and relationships, and how the impacts have changed over time.

2) Discuss how COVID-19 is associated with sexual risk-taking behavior and sexual experimentation.

3) List 3 common sexual difficulties experienced during the pandemic and how people coped with them.

4) Discuss 2 ways clinicians can address the sexual difficulties resulting from the pandemic.

Speaker Bio:

Dr. Justin J. Lehmiller received his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Purdue University. He is a Research Fellow at The Kinsey Institute and author of the book Tell Me What You Want: The Science of Sexual Desire and How It Can Help You Improve Your Sex Life. Dr. Lehmiller is an award-winning educator, having been honored three times with the Certificate of Teaching Excellence from Harvard University, where he taught for several years. He is also a prolific researcher and scholar who has published more than 40 pieces of academic writing to date, including a textbook entitled The Psychology of Human Sexuality (now in its second edition) that is used in college classrooms around the world. Dr. Lehmiller’s research focuses on topics including casual sex, sexual fantasy, sexual health, and friends with benefits. His studies have appeared in all of the leading journals on human sexuality, including the Journal of Sex Research, Archives of Sexual Behavior, and The Journal of Sexual Medicine.
Dr. Lehmiller has run the popular blog Sex and Psychology since 2011, and it now receives several million page views per year. He has been interviewed by numerous media outlets, includingThe Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, CNN.com, The Atlantic, The Globe and Mail, and The Sunday Times. He has been named one of 5 “Sexperts” You Need to Follow on Twitter by Men’s Health and one of the “modern-day masters of sex” by Nerve. Dr. Lehmiller has appeared on several episodes of the television program Tabooon the National Geographic Channel and has been a guest on numerous podcast and radio shows, including the Savage Lovecast and the NPR programs Radio Times and Airtalk. He is a popular freelance writer, penning columns and op-eds for major publications, including Playboy, USA Today, VICE, Psychology Today, and New York Magazine. In addition, the articles he writes on Sex and Psychology have been syndicated on major websites, including Business Insider, Huffington Post, Men’s Health, and Thought Catalog.
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