120 results match your criteria: "Institute for Family and Sexuality Studies[Affiliation]"
Sexual desire has often been conceptualized and studied as an individual trait. However, empirical evidence suggests that there is also value in studying it as a state and dyadic construct. Through a daily diary study with a randomized controlled experimental design, we aimed to explore (i) how the roles that partners fulfill in dyadic interactions are associated with daily fluctuations in dyadic sexual desire, (ii) whether these roles can be leveraged to affect sexual desire for one's partner, and (iii) whether effects of partner interactions on dyadic sexual desire vary by gender.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Sex Res
September 2024
Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven.
The association between mood and sexual desire has been the object of significant scientific and public interest. How mood shapes and is shaped by sexual desire is typically studied within one and the same individual, yet sexual desire is often experienced in the context of a romantic relationship. To obtain a more complete picture of the relation between mood and sexual desire, we examined the temporal interplay between mood and sexual desire both within and between partners in a romantic relationship.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Sex Med
August 2024
Institute for Family and Sexuality Studies, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Sex Transm Dis
November 2024
Interfaculty Institute for Family and Sexuality Studies, Department of Neuroscience, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Background: Estimates on sexual behavior (SB) among emerging adults (EmA) is varied in literature, which presents a challenge when designing targeted interventions. We aimed to summarize literature on prevalence and risk factors of SB among EmA in Africa.
Methods: A search for studies published in PubMed, Embase, and Psych Info by March 2023 was done.
PLoS One
June 2024
Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Background: Sexual behavior (SB) is a well-documented pathway to HIV acquisition in emerging adults and remains common amongst African emerging adults. Previous research in high-income countries indicates a correlation between disordered eating behavior (DEB) and engaging in sexual behaviors. We aimed to describe the relationship between DEB and SB amongst emerging adults attending a tertiary educational institution at the Kenyan Coast.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Sex Health
July 2023
Department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Hand Surgery, Amsterdam University Medical Center, Location VUmc, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Objective: Sexual wellbeing is an important aspect of quality-of-life. In transgender individuals who seek gender affirming treatment, various aspects of sexuality have been assessed. However, not much is known on how transgender individuals themselves perceive sexual wellbeing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Sex Health
May 2023
Department of Neurosciences, Institute for Family and Sexuality Studies, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Despite alarming evidence on sexual violence against women, little is known about men's emotional responses to rape and how these may be involved in sexual violence dynamics. Accordingly, our aim was to capture how rape scenarios are emotionally appraised. The current study evaluated men's (N = 30) self-reported and psychophysiological emotional responses (facial EMG, electrodermal activity) to a rape scene, and contrasted it with their responses to stimuli depicting nonsexual violence and nonviolent male-female interactions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Public Health
January 2024
International Center for Reproductive Health, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, 9000, Belgium.
Background: Previous initiatives concerning adolescent sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education in Low-or-Middle Income Countries (LMICs) have been limited by cultural norms and misinformation perpetuated within families. Responding to the paucity of research on the implementation of SRH interventions in LMICs and limited knowledge regarding their mechanisms, this study undertakes a process evaluation of a parent-focused intervention to promote parent-adolescent communication about SRH in Uganda.
Methods: This paper explores the implementation, contextual factors and mechanisms of impact of the intervention, using the Medical Research Council (MRC) guidelines for process evaluations.
Scand J Public Health
May 2024
Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden.
Aims: To investigate the self-reported impact of COVID-19 measures on access to testing for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and condoms and factors associated with reduced access among adults in Sweden.
Methods: Cross-sectional data were collected in late 2020 through a web panel with adults (18-49 years) in Sweden as part of the International Sexual Health And REproductive health survey (I-SHARE) (=1307). The primary outcome was self-reported access to HIV/STI testing and condoms during COVID-19 measures.
Reprod Health
December 2023
Rutgers, the Netherlands Centre on Sexuality, Arthur van Schendelstraat 696, 3511 MJ, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) can substantially contribute to the health and well-being of young people. Yet, most CSE interventions remain limited to the small piloting or research phase and scale-up is often an afterthought at the end of a project. Because of the specificities of CSE, including it being a controversial topic in many contexts and a topic on the fringe between health, education and youth, a specific scaling approach to CSE is needed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSex Med
October 2023
Institute for Family and Sexuality Studies, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
Background: The African Copperbelt is a site of intense artisanal and industrial mining and refining of copper and cobalt.
Aim: We aimed to investigate factors that are possibly associated with erectile dysfunction (ED) in metal miners in the former Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Methods: In a cross-sectional study of 138 miners and 139 controls (bakers), we administered questionnaires to obtain sociodemographic and occupational data and to assess male sexual function (International Index of Erectile Function [IIEF]) and marital relation quality (Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale).
Fam Process
December 2023
Context, UPC K.U. Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
In this clinical paper, the focus is on the use of questionnaires in family therapy practice. Psychotherapy research has indicated that the quality of the therapeutic relationship is the most robust predictor of therapeutic change. While the therapeutic relationship is even more important in family therapy than in individual therapy, it is also more complex.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Sex Med
July 2023
Department of Clinical Psychological Science, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, 6229 ER, Maastricht, the Netherlands.
Background: Although sexual arousal is commonly experienced in the daily context of relationships, most of what we know about sexual arousal comes from studies on individuals, often conducted in a laboratory context.
Aim: To explore to what extent similarity in levels of sexual arousal during nongenital physical intimacy (ie, cuddling and kissing) was associated with each partner's affect as well as sexual and relationship satisfaction.
Methods: Ninety-four cohabitating couples (mean ± SD age, 26.
J Sex Res
September 2023
Horspath, Oxfordshire, UK.
The Dual Control Model proposes that sexual arousal and related processes are dependent on the balance between sexual excitation and sexual inhibition, and that individuals vary in their propensity for these processes. This scoping review provides an overview and discussion of the questionnaires used to measure the propensities for sexual excitation and inhibition, their translation and validation in other languages, and their application in empirical research on topics ranging from sexual desire and arousal, sexual (dys)function, sexual risk taking, asexuality, hypersexuality, and sexual aggression. A total of 152 papers, published between 2009 and 2022 and identified using online databases, were included in this review.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSex Abuse
March 2024
Institute for Family and Sexuality Studies, Department of Neurosciences, University of Leuven, Belgium.
The predominant approach to understand dynamic risk factors of sexual reoffending has been referred to as the Propensities Model (Thornton, 2016). According to this model, dynamic risk factors can be conceptualized as latent constructs whose change alters the risk of sexual reoffending. Despite its strengths and contributions to research, this model does not offer answers to the question of how dynamic risk factors contribute to the risk of sexual reoffending, or of how sustained change in risk might take place.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Sex Res
February 2024
Department of Clinical Psychological Science, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Although researchers are increasingly paying attention to the dyadic nature of sexual desire and its relevance to sexual and relational outcomes, our understanding of how sexual desire operates on a couple level and how it may influence the occurrence of sexual activity in relationships remains limited. This study used ecological momentary assessments to explore to what extent similarity in levels of desire for sex with one's sexual partner, or dyadic sexual desire, was associated with sexual initiations, receptivity to one's partner's initiations, and partnered sexual activity, and how these associations were moderated by perceived partner support. Ninety-four cohabitating couples (= 26.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFam Process
March 2024
Context UPC KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
In the literature, relational recovery after infidelity is often described as a process going through different consecutive stages towards a reconciliation. We interviewed 25 injured partners and invited them to look back and talk about what helped them to recover from the pain and the conflicts caused by the relational infidelity of their partner. From their stories-through thematic analysis-four themes emerged: 1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Sex Marital Ther
June 2023
Department of Neurosciences, Institute for Family and Sexuality Studies, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
In this qualitative study, we explored women's and men's experience of sexual desire for their romantic partner and its link to dyadic interactions. During interviews and focus group discussions, our participants described sexual desire as 'elusive', 'conditional', 'responsive' and 'malleable'. The subtheme 'elusive' refers to sexual desire having a will of its own, while the remaining three refer to prerequisites for, triggers of, and strategies for enhancing sexual desire respectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Public Health
September 2022
International Centre for Reproductive Health, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Ghent University, Belgium, C. Heymanslaan 10, 9000, Ghent, Belgium.
Background: Previous studies report vast mental health problems in sexual minority people. Representative national proportion estimates on self-identifying LGB+ persons are missing in Belgium. Lacking data collection regarding sexual orientation in either census or governmental survey data limits our understanding of the true population sizes of different sexual orientation groups and their respective health outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDent Med Probl
October 2022
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium.
Background: While sexuality and intimacy are suggested to contribute to quality of life (QoL), it is striking that the sexual problems of head and neck cancer patients have not been adequately studied.
Objectives: Our aim was to prospectively assess the impact of head and neck cancer and its treatment on sexuality and intimacy.
Material And Methods: A questionnaire study with a 6-month follow-up period was conducted at the University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium, using the Maudsley marital questionnaire (MMQ), the sexual adjustment questionnaire (SAQ) and the short sexual functioning scale (SSFS) to prospectively assess the impact of head and neck cancer and its treatment on sexuality and intimacy.
Gerontologist
February 2023
Institute for Family and Sexuality Studies, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
This article presents a new conceptual framework that shows how dementia may affect the sexual relationship between partners, and how different actors become progressively more involved in "managing" the sexual relationship during consecutive phases of dementia, that is, the premorbid, preclinical, and clinical phases. Each phase challenges couples in different ways and these challenges may affect the expression of sexuality in their relationship. The person living with dementia and/or the partner's desire to continue to be sexually active may result in conflicts with health care professionals and family members who want to protect the person living with dementia from becoming the perpetrator and/or the victim of "inappropriate" or "harming" sexual behavior.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Sex Health
August 2022
Department of Neurosciences, Institute for Family and Sexuality Studies, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Sexual assertiveness (SA), i.e., the ability to communicate thoughts and desires that may be translated into satisfying sexual activity within an intimate relationship, is important for safe and satisfying sexual behavior.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArch Sex Behav
April 2022
Department of Neurosciences, Institute for Family and Sexuality Studies, KU Leuven, University of Leuven, Campus St-Rafaël, Kapucijnenvoer 7, 3000, Leuven, Belgium.
The quality of communication between romantic partners has consistently been found to be associated with relationship well-being and stability. Studies on sexual and nonsexual communication, however, have typically assessed communication skills and behaviors using self-report measures. The use of observational methods has several advantages, including the ability to capture and allow for the independent coding of both partners' communication behaviors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Impot Res
March 2023
Department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Hand Surgery, Amsterdam University Medical Center, Location VUmc, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Sexual-wellbeing is recognized as an important aspect of quality-of-life. Yet, no overview exists of which aspects of sexual-wellbeing have been assessed in trans individuals seeking or undergoing medical treatment, nor is it clear what tools are used to evaluate the effect of medical treatment on sexual-wellbeing. First, to identify which topics pertaining to sexual-wellbeing have been assessed in transgender individuals in a medical context.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArch Sex Behav
January 2022
Institute for Family and Sexuality Studies, KU Leuven, Kapucijnenvoer 7 - blok g - bus 7001, 3000, Leuven, Belgium.
In most theoretical models, sexual desire for one's partner is predominantly conceptualized from an individual perspective. There is, however, a growing body of empirical evidence on the dyadic aspects of sexual desire. That evidence is as yet not well-integrated into theoretical conceptualizations of sexual desire.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF