BACKGROUND No study has been conducted yet on the process of adjustment of wives with their husbands' erectile dysfunction in the transitional stages, and there is lack of understanding of this process in Iran. OBJECTIVES A qualitative, grounded-theory study was designed to examine the process of adjustment of wives with their husbands' erectile dysfunction in transitional stages. MATERIALS...

Sexual agreements, explicit mutual understandings made between two partners about which sexual and related behaviors they agree to engage in within and/or outside of their relationship, are common among male couples. However, little is known about the perceived rewards and challenges partnered men face in the process of forming a sexual agreement. Such knowledge may be useful for the developmen...

In light of the ongoing salience of spirituality and religion for individuals across the globe, this special section presents four rigorous empirical studies that tie conceptually based and potentially malleable spiritual constructs to better marital functioning. These studies exemplify an emerging subfield called Relational Spirituality, which focuses on the ways that couples can draw on speci...

Although self-disclosure is a critical aspect of interactions between intimate partners, having a partner who is responsive to one’s needs after the disclosure is equally important. But what does responsiveness look like? Two observational coding systems for responsive behaviors (Study 1) were created to test the links between one partner’s behaviors and the other partner’s outcomes, on videota...

Abstract Pandemic border closures separated previously transnational couples, including unmarried partners, revealing under-researched forms of family life. From this point departure, we reexamine Norwegian immigration regulation for partners from the 1980s onwards. Societal norms around coupledom have shifted toward Giddens’s “pure relationship.” Yet, regulations focused on “problematic marria...

BACKGROUND Men who undergo surgery for prostate cancer frequently experience significant side-effects including urinary and sexual dysfunction. These difficulties can lead to anxiety, depression and reduced quality of life. Many partners also experience psychological distress. An additional impact can be on the couple relationship, with changes to intimacy, and unmet psychosexual supportive nee...