A Rapid Review of Sexual Wellbeing Definitions and Measures: Should We Now Include Sexual Wellbeing Freedom?

An increasing number of studies refer to sexual wellbeing and/or seek to measure it, and the term appears across various policy documents, including sexual health frameworks in the UK. We conducted a rapid review to determine how sexual wellbeing has been defined, qualitatively explored and quantitatively measured. Eligible studies selected for inclusion from OVID Medline, PsychInfo, PubMed, Embase, CINAHL were: in English language, published after 2007, were peer-reviewed full articles, focused on sexual wellbeing (or proxies for, e.g. satisfaction, function), and quantitatively or qualitatively assessed sexual wellbeing. We included studies with participants aged 16–65. Given study heterogeneity, our synthesis and findings are reported using a narrative approach. We identified 162 papers, of which 10 offered a definition of sexual wellbeing. Drawing upon a socio-ecological model, we categorised the 59 dimensions we identified from studies under three main domains: cognitive-affect (31 dimensions); inter-personal (22 dimensions); and socio-cultural (6 dimensions). Only 11 papers were categorised under the socio-cultural domain, commonly focusing on gender inequalities or stigma. We discuss the importance of conceptualising sexual wellbeing as individually experienced but socially and structurally influenced, including assessing sexual wellbeing freedom: a person’s freedom to achieve sexual wellbeing, or their real opportunities and liberties.     

Love and Hooking Up in the New Millennium: Communication Technology and Relationships among Urban African American and Puerto Rican Young Adults

Communication technology is a central feature of young people's lives, but its role in romantic and sexual relationships has not been thoroughly examined. This article describes how young adults use communication technology for partnering across relationship stages (formation, maintenance, and dissolution) and types (serious/casual), and proposes implications of usage in relationships. This study analyzed qualitative data from a five-week, prospective, coital diary method with related debriefing interviews (N = 70) of African American and Puerto Rican men and women aged 18 to 25 years in Hartford and Philadelphia. Cell phones, including calls, text messaging, and mobile Internet, were the most common forms of communication technology used for partnering goals. Participants reported using cell phones to pursue partnering goals across all relationship stages, including formation (meeting, screening, and getting to know new partners), maintaining existing relationships, and breaking up. Cell phone uses depended on the type of relationship (serious/casual) and the participants' intentions and desires. Results indicated that cell phones are an important element of communication among young adults in romantic and sexual relationships. Specific features of cell phone communication shape the process and context of partnering. Future research should explore emerging communication technologies and implications for psychosocial development, dating violence, and sexual behavior.     

A research note on male‐female differentials in the experience of heterosexual love

Debate regarding the morality of abortion has ranged from expressions of concern for the fetus by anti‐abortionists to assertions by those favoring legalized abortion that women should control their own bodies. The present research explored the possibility that the social acceptability of the sexual relationship and the extent of contraceptive conscientiousness of an abortion applicant influences favorability of response toward abortion. After responding to a measure of attitudes toward premarital contraceptive use, 40 college students read 10 brief case histories of young unmarried women who were purportedly requesting abortion. As hypothesized, participants' support for abortion was influenced by the source of contraceptive failure (method vs. personal), kind of contraceptive (artificial vs. natural), and kind of sexual relationship (steady vs. casual). Results were discussed in terms of the possibility that observers may wish to restore justice by giving greater support for abortion for conscientious contraceptive users involved in socially approved sexual relationships than for careless contraceptive users whose involvements are more casual. It was suggested that societal attitudes toward contraception for unmarried persons may interact with the reality of the prevalence of premarital sexual activity to increase the premarital pregnancy rate.     

Abstracts of Papers Presented at the 1968 Annual Meetings of the O.V.S.S.

Abstract

Preparation for blizzard conditions by respondents in Wood County, Ohio, in 1977–1978 was higher than expected; a majority of those who received warnings responded with further preparation, but planned little more preparation for the winter of 1978–1979. The best predictors of preparation were: place of residence, age, marital status, sex, and occupation. Variables best predicting plans to prepare for the approaching winter were: maintenance expense incurred as a result of the winter of 1977–1978, marital status, the number of family members at home during the blizzard, and place of residence.

The respondents had a reasonably clear understanding of their actual situation; there was little evidence to suggest they were poorly prepared and unrealistic at the same time. Further examination of the theory of “bounded rationality” to determine conditions under which it is most useful is suggested.     

‘So color de una cofradía’: Catholic Confraternities and the Development of Afro-Peruvian Ethnicities in Early Colonial Peru

Enslaved and free Africans in Lima, Peru, joined Catholic cofradías (religious sodalities) in order to form community. As they did this, they also discovered and created fissures within their number. Early cofradía records demonstrate how Afro-descent communities drew upon their contemporary experiences, including adapting the European rhetoric of ‘difference’ deployed against them to identify and police their own divisions during the first century of the institutionalisation of African slavery in Spanish America. These documents also provide us with a history of how African ‘ethnicities’ came to be central to diasporic identities.     

“A Fear Like I've Never Felt”: Experiences of Parents Whose Adult Children Deployed to Combat Zones

Despite the increase of research with military families, less is known about the experiences of those parents who have adult children deployed overseas for military operations. This article presents parents’ experiences of having adult children deployed to combat zones. Qualitative data were gathered through an Internet-based survey during 2010. Analyses revealed important themes within the parents’ portrayals expressing strong reactions of fear, worry and concern for their children's safety and well being throughout their experiences. Parents also described frustrations communicating with their deployed children. Support from formal and informal sources was important to their coping, as was assistance from religious and military organizations. Finally, parents reported varied impacts of the adult children's deployment on the parents’ marriages. Implications for future military family research and family life education are provided.     

An Attachment Primer for Couple Therapists: Research and Clinical Implications

According to attachment theory, humans are relational beings and even a child's earliest experiences with caregivers have a profound effect on emotional development and an overall approach to relationships. With increasing regularity, couple therapy has utilized attachment language as a conceptual tool, but more work is needed to understand the full clinical implications of attachment theory. These include understanding the intergenerational nature of attachment and adapting the delivery, timing, and pace of interventions to client attachment strategies. In this article, we summarize the origins of attachment theory, its measurement, the role of attachment in couple relationships, attachment stability and change, and ways that attachment informs therapy process and intervention. We hope that this article will provide an impetus for couple therapists to expand their conceptualization and use of attachment in their clinical work and for couple researchers to conduct more clinically relevant, attachment‐oriented process research.