Sex as leisure approach during the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts on the quantity and quality of sex life

The COVID-19 pandemic has detrimentally affected people’s sex lives. The purpose of this research was to study sex as leisure approach during the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts on the quantity and quality of people’s sex lives. The cross-sectional data were collected using an online survey methodology (N = 675). The results show that, on average, the participants’ tendency to view sex as leisure has deteriorated during the pandemic, which is a problematic health risk factor because people’s capacity to view sex as leisure was positively related to sexual frequency, desire, quality, diversity, intimacy, and satisfaction during the pandemic. People who strongly believed that sex is leisure prior to the pandemic have preserved this view during the pandemic, which contributed to the resilience of their sex lives. All the decreases in the propensity to view sex as leisure happened among people who held a moderate view of sex as leisure before the pandemic. Socio-demographic factors, adjustment to lockdown, and changes in stress levels have also affected people’s sex lives during the pandemic. These results demonstrate that a strong(er) tendency to view sex as leisure can serve as a protective factor against the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on people’s sex life.