The effect of pre-match sexual intercourse on football players' performance: a prospective cross over study.

BACKGROUND: Current research suggests that pre-competition sexual intercourse does not influence athletes' performance. Yet, high quality studies in this field are scarce. METHODS: We aimed to investigate whether sexual activity negatively influences physiological performance. We conducted a prospective cross over study, which enrolled active players from the first team of a football club in the Israeli Football Premier League during the 2018-19 season. We gathered participants' physiological performance using GPS driven data per match. In addition, we assessed sexual activity the night before using telephone interviews at the end of every match. We used a linear mixed models methodology, accounting for each player as a cluster. RESULTS: We enrolled 14 participants who participated in 88 football matches. The mean age was 29.7 (±3.8) years and the majority were in permanent relationships for longer than 6 months (78.6%). We identified sexual intercourses the night before the match in 9 (10.2%) cases. The average speed during the match was slower when participants had pre-match intercourse (6.5 vs. 6.0 Km/h, P=0.02). The results remained consistent when using linear mixed models analysis adjusted for age, for previous belief that a pre-match sexual intercourse may affect match performance and for player as a cluster (P=0.02, 95% C.I -0.85- -0.07). Other parameters were not associated with pre-match intercourse. CONCLUSIONS: To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to show that sexual intercourse the night before a football match may have a negative influence on players' performance.

State Mindful Attention Awareness as a Dyadic Protective Factor During COVID-19: a Daily Diary Study.

Objectives: Accumulating evidence suggests that mindfulness, as a trait, can be a form of personal resilience to stress. However, mindfulness is considered a present-moment state which makes it important to focus on its state-level (vs. trait-level) effects. Modern theories of stress suggest that coping with stress often involves interpersonal processes, and it is therefore valuable to clarify mindfulness interpersonal (vs. intrapersonal) stress-buffering effects. The current study examined mindful attention awareness as a dyadic protective factor at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A convenience sample of 72 cohabiting romantic couples participated in a 21-day daily diary study. The background (pre-diary) questionnaire assessed their experience of COVID-related stressors (e.g., financial and health-related burdens). The diary assessed state mindful attention awareness, mood, COVID-related stress, relationship satisfaction, and perceived partner responsiveness (PPR). Results: A series of Actor-Partner Interdependence Multilevel Models were used to analyze the dyadic data. Actor state mindful awareness was associated with better daily personal (mood and stress) and relational (PPR and satisfaction) outcomes. Partner state mindful awareness was associated with higher PPR. Actor state mindful awareness also attenuated the association between pre-diary COVID-related stressors and daily COVID-related stress. Conclusion: State mindfulness may serve as a dyadic protective factor when couples face stressful circumstances. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12671-022-02025-z.

Daily dyadic coping during COVID-19 among Israeli couples.

Declared a global pandemic in March 2020, COVID-19 is unequivocally changing individuals' daily lives. Research suggests that for many people, the current pandemic is stressogenic, propelling myriads of disturbing affective experiences resulting in greater symptoms of depression and anxiety. Little is known, however, about how this ecologically grounded stress is experienced and managed within people's romantic relationships. Guided by the systemic transactional model of dyadic coping, the current study tested 4 preregistered hypotheses examining the effects of dyadic coping processes on partners' daily mood and relational outcomes near to the outbreak of COVID-19 (During May 2020). Using daily diary data collected from 72 Israeli couples over 21 days, the results showed COVID-related stress to be associated with lower daily positive, and higher daily negative, mood. Stress communication (i.e., disclosing stress to one's partner) was not associated with mood or relational outcomes; however, perceived positive and negative forms of dyadic coping (perceived partner's constructive and destructive behaviors in response to one's stress) were associated with poorer daily relational outcomes. Negative dyadic coping also exacerbated the effect of stress on one's negative mood. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the effects of daily dyadic coping and COVID-related stress on people's affective and relational outcomes. The findings may shed light on the ways in which partners can help each other to adaptively cope with global health crises. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).