Power, one's perceived ability to influence others, is likely fundamental to the sexual aspects of couples' lives. However, relatively little is known about how different forms of power in romantic relationships relate to sexuality. This is partly because prior research has not clearly distinguished between actor versus partner power, and between experienced (actor) versus desired power. Building on recent theoretical developments that emphasize these distinctions, we examined how power relates to four different aspects of sexuality across four studies (Ntotal = 1,109 participants), including individuals in romantic relationships and both woman-man as well as LGBTQ couples. We found that greater actor power was associated with higher sexual satisfaction, sexual motivation, and sexual assertiveness, but was unrelated to sexual control beliefs. Greater partner power was associated only with higher sexual satisfaction. Desired power showed no consistent associations with any aspect of sexuality. These findings largely replicated across both trait-level and daily assessments. Furthermore, the findings differed minimally between women and men and only partly between sexual majority versus minority participants. The current findings advance theory and research on power by highlighting its dyadic nature and by underscoring the importance of distinguishing between experienced and desired power to better understand how power and sexuality intersect.
Chemsex, understood as a form of sexualized drug use that involves a range of psychoactive substance and sociocultural contexts, has been associated with various physical and psychological risks. Among these, sexual victimization remains a critical yet underexplored issue. This scoping review synthesizes literature on sexual victimization in chemsex to identify key patterns, risk factors, and research gaps. A systematic search was conducted in multiple databases, following the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Review guidelines. Fifteen empirical studies met the inclusion criteria and were assessed for methodological quality using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. Three main themes were identified: (1) experiences of nonconsensual sex acts; (2) sexual consent, self-perception, and labeling sexual victimization; (3) risk factors for sexual victimization. Reports of sexual victimization in chemsex are significant, particularly in cases of drug-facilitated sexual assault. Moreover, the understanding of consent remains ambiguous, and there is little perception and acknowledgment of victimization experiences. Several risk factors, including specific substances such as gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB), younger age, and power dynamics contribute to this phenomenon. Based on the results, harm reduction strategies were proposed at three different levels to mitigate risks (public and policy, health care and support professionals, and practitioners). Future research should refine measurement tools and further investigate protective factors and intervention effectiveness.
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