Separation and divorce are life events that might alter life satisfaction on the long term. Previous literature suggests a recovery of life satisfaction after marital dissolution for most individuals, simultaneously emphasizing considerable heterogeneity in the extent and timing of such adaptation. A new partnership seems to be a promising factor for a positive post-separation adjustment process. At the same time, the question arises whether people with beneficial characteristics, such as higher trait resilience, may have a double advantage by recovering faster and being more likely to find a new partner. However, little research has concurrently investigated the consequences of repartnering and favorable personal attributes on life satisfaction of middle- and older-aged people, especially not beyond the initial recovery period. Our data stem from a three-wave longitudinal questionnaire study including 199 participants after a separation, all single at the beginning of the study. Latent growth modeling was applied to investigate trajectories of life satisfaction, examining the role of a new intimate partnership, while controlling for trait resilience. Trait resilience represented a strong general predictor for inter-individual differences in the initial level of life satisfaction. However, an increase in life satisfaction over time was only observed in the group of participants who engaged in a new partnership. This increase occurred independently of preexisting differences in beneficial characteristics, such as high levels of trait resilience or life satisfaction. Thus, repartnering is associated with improvement of life satisfaction beyond the first adaptation phase after separation and is therefore important to prevent long-term negative consequences.

We studied the Amsterdam Sexual Pleasure Inventory’s (ASPI, Vol. 1.0) psychometric properties to present evidence regarding its intended interpretation and use. The ASPI is a theory-based and revised self-report battery which aims to assess different domains of state and trait sexual pleasure in survey-research in gender-diverse, sex-diverse, and relationship-diverse populations. We collected quantitative (n = 1371) and qualitative data (n = 637) using a cross-sectional multi-method design targeting the general (German-speaking) population. The theory-based 5-factor ESEM showed good and the PCA of the two general exploratory index-scales showed acceptable structural validity evidence. Measurement invariance of the 5-factor models was given for male and female (assigned-at-birth) participants and for sexually functional-scoring and dysfunctional-scoring people. Coefficient omega indicated that all scales, except those of one facet, showed acceptable to very good internal consistency reliability. The ASPI’s convergent and discriminant associations with sexological and psychological constructs demonstrated good overall construct validity evidence and the scales showed differential utility in differentiating known-groups. Participants understood the items as intended and felt that the ASPI covers relevant facets of sexual pleasure. The ASPI might help understand how individuals differ in experiencing sexual pleasure and how different contexts enable some people to experience pleasure while disadvantaging others.

The importance of sexual pleasure as a factor promoting sexual and public health is increasingly recognized. Nevertheless, hardly any theory-based and empirically tested interventions exist for fostering sexual pleasure. Consequently, we developed an unguided online intervention called PleaSure to promote sexual pleasure in women. In a randomized controlled pilot trial with a mixed-method design, we evaluated the effectiveness of PleaSure by comparing the intervention group to a waitlist control group in pre–post measurements over 4 weeks. With 657 participants (Mage = 31.46, SDage = 8.78), we evaluated an index of sexual pleasure and five facets: sensual pleasure, pleasure-related mastery, pleasure-related validation, interaction pleasure, and bonding pleasure. The results show that the online intervention primarily strengthened the intrapersonal domain of sexual pleasure by increasing pleasure-related mastery. Neither the other facets nor the index was significantly influenced by the intervention. Although the effects of the quantitative data are small, the qualitative data support overall positive effects on participants’ sexual experience. We discuss the content of the intervention and the methods used. Our pilot study suggests that sexual pleasure can be promoted but that major improvements are needed to the intervention’s content and design to do so effectively. Therefore, future studies are encouraged to further develop and implement such resource-efficient interventions in clinical and non-clinical samples to better understand the importance of sexual pleasure to sexual health.

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