How coronavirus lockdowns changed attitudes to sex and relationships
- A study by Chinese scientists found that sex became a far more important factor in how people viewed their relationship than before
- While the Covid-19 pandemic has had a detrimental effect on many people’s sex lives, in some cases it has strengthened the emotional bond between couples
Scientists have long accepted that sex is one of the least important aspects of a good relationship, but the impact of coronavirus-related lockdowns appears to have turned that conventional wisdom on its head.
A new study by Chinese scientists has found that lockdown sex played a much greater than normal role in improving couples’ relationships – at least for those who were not distracted by children or too stressed by the situation.
Studies conducted before the Covid-19 pandemic suggested that sex had little or no impact on the overall quality of male-female relationships when compared to other factors such as money, education levels or age, especially from the woman’s perspective.
One possible explanation for the change is that during the lockdown period, “sexual satisfaction was closely related to communication between partners … When sexual satisfaction between partners was achieved, positive emotions were generated, and positive partner behaviours were displayed”, said the team led by professor Wang Peixi, from the school of nursing and health at Henan University in Kaifeng, in a paper published in journal Sexual Medicine on Friday.
Numerous studies have found that the pandemic has had a detrimental effect on people’s sex lives overall, linking an increase in the number of infections with a decline in sexual activity.