Sex as Leisure as a Coping Mechanism with the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Sex Life

This study examined the capacity of sex as leisure approach to serve as a coping strategy with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on sex life and its relationships with people’s tendency to use other coping mechanisms and benefit from them. The cross-sectional data were collected using an online survey (N = 675, 65.9% women, age range:18-76yo). The analysis included t-tests and multivariate multiple regressions. Results show that many people used sex as leisure approach as a coping strategy with the impacts of the pandemic on their sex lives and found it useful. Sex as leisure approach included attitudinal, behavioral, and technologically mediated strategies. The use and capacity to benefit from sex as leisure coping strategy had significant (and in most cases, large) effects on people’s propensity to use and find useful other sexual coping mechanisms, including creativity and pleasure, diversion, goal-setting, relational, educational, caution/logistical, online and technology, and innovation/experimentation coping strategies.