The current system of sexuality education in Polish secondary schools: University students’ perspectives

In secondary schools in Poland, sexuality education was formally introduced in 1993 in the form of Education for Family Life (EFL) classes. The EFL curriculum is largely based on Catholic doctrine. The current study examined the opinions and attitudes of students attending a university in Poland regarding sexuality education in public secondary schools. A sample of 498 first- and second-year university students completed a questionnaire that collected information on demographic characteristics, the student’s sources of information about sexual health, and their opinions and attitudes related to sexuality education. Over 80% of the students used the Internet as a source of sexual health information, while far fewer students cited teachers/classroom activities (24.3%). Over three-quarter of females (79.5%) and males (75.9%) agreed that it is important to have sexual health education as part of the secondary school curriculum. Students’ responses to the question on the importance of sexual health education in schools did not differ significantly based on their level of religious commitment. However, few women (12.9%) and men (9.2%) rated the current effectiveness of sexuality education in schools as “high.” For topics that should be covered in the curriculum, the students rated birth control methods, abortion, sexual orientation/lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues, and sexually transmitted diseases the highest. The findings indicate that Polish university students view school-based sexual health education as important but currently ineffective. Policies to reform public school-based sexual health in Poland are needed to ensure that Polish youth have the information and skills to protect and enhance their sexual health.

Orgasm consistency and its relationship to women’s self-reported and genital sexual response

According to the Incentive Motivation Model (IMM) of sexual response, the rewarding and pleasurable aspects of a sexual act strengthen its incentive value and capacity to trigger sexual motivation. One such sexual reward is orgasm consistency, the percentage of time that orgasm is experienced during a sex act. Orgasm consistency may serve to influence the incentive value of a sexual behaviour. We tested this tenet of the IMM by examining whether orgasm consistency predicted women’s sexual responses to films depicting various sex acts. Data were collected from four separate studies examining women’s genital and subjective sexual response. Participants ( N = 144, age range = 18–65) were presented with neutral and erotic film stimuli while their genital arousal was assessed using vaginal photoplethysmography or thermography. Participants reported their sexual arousal level before, during, and after each stimulus presentation, and completed questionnaires assessing sexual history and experiences, sexual interests, and sexual functioning. Orgasm consistency during penile–vaginal intercourse (PVI) significantly predicted genital arousal to films depicting PVI, but similar relationships were not observed between genital or self-reported arousal and orgasm consistency during receptive oral sex and masturbation. Findings suggest that increasing orgasm consistency to a sex act may increase its incentive value, thereby triggering greater genital response to depictions of that act. Lack of consistent orgasm or generally pleasurable and rewarding sex may limit the capacity of sex acts to trigger sexual motivation in future sexual encounters, thus contributing to low sexual arousal and desire in women.

Body image self-consciousness, sexting, and sexual satisfaction among midlife Canadians

Life circumstances at midlife are often different than those for younger adults (e.g., relationship type and duration, physical health, experience of sexual problems), and these circumstances impact experiences of sexuality and sexual behaviour. Past research on sexual behaviours like sexting, which has been primarily conducted on young people, may not generalize to middle-aged adults. Sexting may be a beneficial activity for midlife adults in long-term relationships who are seeking private and convenient ways to communicate sexual interest. Furthermore, as in younger samples, sexting may be associated with body image and sexual satisfaction. A cross-sectional study with a sample of 640 midlife (40–59 years old) married Canadians was conducted to address these suppositions. Structural equation modelling was used to test the factorial validity of a body image self-consciousness (BISC) scale and to investigate the connections between BISC, sexting frequency (to communicate sexual interest, to initiate sexual activity, and that include a picture), and sexual satisfaction. Almost one-half of participants (43%) reported sexting to communicate sexual interest, 37% sexted to initiate sexual activity, and 18% sexted sexy pictures of themselves. Women with lower levels of BISC were more likely to sext (communicate, initiate, and pictures), and men with lower levels of BISC were more likely to send sexts with pictures. Both men and women with lower levels of BISC and those who engaged in sexting to communicate sexual interest had higher levels of sexual satisfaction. Sexting may be an opportunity for busy marital partners to engage in technology-mediated sexual activity when apart. The current results indicate that technology-mediated sexual communication has similar psychological mechanisms to face-to-face interactions and that sexting may be a beneficial behaviour for sexual satisfaction within midlife marriages.

Sexual function among distressed women struggling to conceive without medical intervention

Infertility is disproportionately associated with distress in women, yet there has been limited research focusing on sexual function in this population. Two hundred and thirty women with infertility who were attempting to conceive without medical assistance were recruited via social media. Women completed the Fertility Quality of Life, Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale, Female Sexual Functioning Index, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and Patient Health Questionnaire. Over half of the women with infertility met the clinical cut-off for sexual dysfunction. Sexual function was positively associated with relationship adjustment and infertility-related quality of life and negatively associated with anxiety and depression. Sexual function moderated the relationship between time trying to conceive and psychological outcomes. These findings highlight several domains of sexual functioning that could be manipulated via psychological interventions to potentially improve distress among women struggling to conceive.

Perceived impact of COVID-19 on sexual health and access to sexual health services among university students in Canada

We examined the perceived impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sexual health, sexual behaviour, well-being, and access to sexual health services among university students in Canada. Between December 2020 and January 2021, 1504 university students across Canada completed an online survey focused on overall sexual health, well-being, solitary sexual behaviours, partnered sexual interactions, and access to sexual health services. The survey was designed by the Sex Information & Education Council of Canada and administered by the Leger polling company. Reported levels of overall sexual health were high. Cisgender women reported significantly greater scores of COVID-19—related stress compared to cisgender men; LGBQ+ students had higher levels of stress compared to heterosexual participants. Overall, solitary sexual behaviours (i.e., masturbation, porn use, vibrator use) remained unchanged or were perceived to increase compared to the time before the pandemic. Cisgender men reported higher scores (i.e., greater perceived increases) on masturbation and porn use than cisgender women. Frequency of sex with casual partners was perceived as similar or lower than what was usual before the pandemic, and most participants did not engage in sex where the close personal contact put them or their partner at risk for COVID-19. Declines in access were reported for all sexual health care services surveyed, with cisgender women and students of colour more likely to report decreased access to services. Results highlight the need for targeted public health messaging regarding sexual behaviour, investment in sexual health services, and supports tailored to the needs of women, LGBTQ+ individuals, and people of colour.

Virginity beliefs in lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals experiencing same- and different-sex “first” times

The purpose of the current study was to explore first sex experiences in lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals (LGB) using the Virginity Beliefs Framework ( Carpenter, 2001 ; Humphreys, 2013 ; Eriksson & Humphreys, 2014 ). The specific focus was on LGB individuals who have had both a sexual experience with a member of a different sex and a member of the same sex. This phenomenon is what the current study is defining as second virginity loss. Participants consisted of 275 self-identified LGB individuals; the sample was approximately half women (57%) between the ages of 18 and 56. Further, six semi-structured interviews were conducted to gain a clearer understanding of LGB individuals first sex experiences. Two primary research questions were proposed: (1) how do the virginity belief frames map onto the two “first” sexual experiences of LGB individuals? and (2) are there differences in the virginity belief frames between the two “first” times? Results found that LGB individuals hold stronger process beliefs than gift or stigma beliefs for both of their “first” times. The qualitative interviews suggested that the process of understanding virginity was enmeshed with a larger exploration, and eventual validation, of sexual identity. There was also a significant drop in the strength of some of the gift, process, and stigma beliefs from different-sex experience to same-sex experience for many in the gay and bisexual samples, but not in the lesbian sample. The current study is the first to explore the phenomenon of second virginity loss in LGB individuals and could be used as a foundation for future research on LGB first sexual experiences.

Gender-specific genital and subjective sexual arousal to prepotent sexual stimuli in androphilic men and gynephilic women

Marked differences have been found in men’s and women’s sexual response patterns, contingent upon their sexual orientation; androphilic (attracted to men) and gynephilic (attracted to women) men demonstrate greatest genital and self-reported arousal to their preferred stimulus type (a “gender-specific” response), whereas androphilic women do not, and findings for gynephilic women have been mixed. While there have been many investigations into gynephilic men’s and androphilic women’s (i.e., heterosexual men/women) sexual response, there has been less investigation into the specificity of sexual response of androphilic men and gynephilic women. Given the complex nature of sexual stimuli that are used in sexual response research, it is often unclear to what extent contextual cues (e.g., cues other than the sexual actor’s primary and secondary sex characteristics, such as physical attractiveness, sexual activity, etc.) influence participants’ sexual response patterns. As such, the current study examined genital, discrete self-reported, and continuous self-reported responses of androphilic men ( n = 22) and gynephilic women ( n = 10) to prepotent sexual features (stimuli thought to elicit automatic sexual arousal: erect penises and exposed vulvas), non-prepotent sexual features (flaccid penises and pubic triangles) and neutral stimuli (clothed men and women). Both samples exhibited a gender-specific pattern of genital, self-reported, and continuous self-reported sexual arousal. Similarly, all measures of sexual arousal were generally found to be greatest to “prepotent” sexual cues. Implications for understanding gender specificity of sexual response are discussed.

Managing the toll of sex work with bounded agency: Perspectives of ex-sex workers

The present study builds upon qualitative narratives of ex-sex workers to explore if these women felt they had maintained a positive sense of self during involvement in sex work and, if so, how. Specific objectives were to identify strategies they used to protect their self-concept and better understand the challenges they faced in their efforts to keep sex work within their comfort zone. Fourteen participants were recruited in six different cities from the province of Quebec (Canada) and interviewed twice in 2016. Findings suggest that women were very aware of the effects sex work could have on their self-concept because of the stigma surrounding it, but also because of ambivalent experiences with clients and pimps. As a result, they used various strategies to protect their sense of self, the main one being the making and following of rules that govern sex work activities. Yet, our findings show that the protective quality of these self-concept protection strategies is limited, as women observed that they compromised with personal boundaries at various occasions during their pathways. They made strong associations between these compromises and a progressive fragilization of their sense of self.

It’s all Greek to me: Explaining, computing, and summarizing traditional and (re)emerging metrics of reliability for seven measures in sexual science

Sexual scientists typically default to appraising the reliability of their self-report measures by calculating one or more α coefficients. Despite the prolific use of α, few researchers understand how to situate and make sense of α within the psychometric theories used to develop the measures used in their research (e.g., latent variable theory) and many unknowingly violate the assumptions of α. In this paper, we describe the disconnect between α and latent variable theory and the subsequent restrictive assumptions α makes. Simultaneously, we introduce an alternative metric of reliability—omega (ɷ)—that is compatible with latent variable theory. Subsequently, we provide a tutorial to walk readers through didactic examples on how to calculate ɷ metrics of reliability using the getOmega() function—a simple open-source function we created to automate the estimation of ɷ. We then introduce the Measurement of Sexuality and Intimacy Constructs (MoSaIC) project to provide insight into the state of reliability in sexuality science. We do this through contrasting α and ɷ estimates of reliability across seven sexuality measures, selected based on their emerging and pre-existing relevance and influence in the field of sexuality, in both a queer (LGBTQ+) sample ( n = 545) and a United States’ representative sample ( n = 548). We finish our paper with pragmatic suggestions for editors, reviewers, and authors. By more deeply understanding one’s options of reliability metrics, sexual scientists may carefully consider how they present and assess their measures’ reliability, and ultimately help improve our science’s replicability.

The relationship between consumption of pornography and consensual sexual practice: Results of a mixed method systematic review

This article reports on the findings of a systematic review of literature on pornography use and sexual consent published between January 2000 and December 2017. The review found that there exists little research explicitly addressing consent. There exists an extensive literature on the relationship between the consumption of pornography and sexual aggression/violence; however, this work fails to distinguish between consensual (kink, spanking, BDSM) and nonconsensual acts (sexual harassment and rape). Our thematic analysis found that there is no agreement in the literature reviewed as to whether consumption of pornography is correlated with better or worse understandings or practices of sexual consent. The majority of articles that identified correlations between aspects of sexual health and pornography consumption incorrectly assigned causality to pornography consumption.