Wartime Stress and Sexual Well-Being: A Longitudinal Study of Cohabitating Adults in Israel.

Sexual function worsened early in the war but showed partial improvement by the later stage of the conflict.

• Data collected at three time points: before the war (retrospectively), one month into the conflict, and five months later
• 921 cohabiting Israeli adults participated in the longitudinal study
• Linear mixed model analyses were used to assess changes across time points
• The pattern reflects partial but not full recovery in sexual functioning

Sexual satisfaction dropped initially after the war began but returned to baseline levels by five months into the conflict.

• Sexual satisfaction showed a significant early decline at the one-month time point
• By the five-month mark, satisfaction levels had recovered to pre-war baseline
• This pattern was identified using linear mixed model analyses across the three time points
• The recovery suggests a degree of population resilience in this domain of sexual well-being

Sexual distress remained relatively stable across all three time points during the wartime period.

• Unlike sexual function and satisfaction, sexual distress did not show significant change over the study period
• This stability held across the pre-war, one-month, and five-month assessments
• Sexual distress was one of three sexual well-being domains examined alongside sexual function problems and sexual satisfaction

Gender significantly moderated changes in sexual well-being, with women showing greater vulnerability to stress-related sexual disruptions than men.

• Gender was identified as a significant moderator of the relationship between wartime stress and sexual well-being
• Women demonstrated more pronounced declines in sexual well-being compared to men
• The gendered pattern applied to stress-related sexual disruptions across the study period
• No significant three-way interaction between time, gender, and stress was found

Higher acute stress symptoms were associated with more pronounced declines and slower recovery in sexual functioning and satisfaction.

• Acute stress symptoms emerged as a key moderator of sexual well-being outcomes
• Individuals with higher stress levels experienced both greater initial declines and slower recovery
• This moderation effect was observed for both sexual functioning and sexual satisfaction domains
• The three-way interaction between time, gender, and stress was not statistically significant

The study design used retrospective pre-war baseline data alongside prospective wartime follow-ups among cohabiting Israeli adults.

• Total sample of 921 participants who were cohabiting adults in Israel
• Three measurement time points were used: before the war (collected retrospectively), one month into the conflict, and five months later
• The study focused specifically on cohabiting adults during the 2023 Israel-Hamas War
• Linear mixed models were the primary analytical approach