Covid intimacies: Resilience and viral safety among LGBT and heterosexual people using dating apps in the COVID-19 era

本项目调查了女同性恋、男同性恋、双性恋、变性人和异性恋者在COVID-19社交距离和封锁期间和之后使用在线约会应用程序来协商亲密关系（即情感和/或身体亲密）的情况。它重点关注在2019冠状病毒病期间和之后，约会应用程序如何促进或限制多元的性和性别亲密文化，与约会应用程序相关的现有和新的亲密做法对支持个人复原力（即人们应对困难情况的能力，例如与COVID-19封锁和社交距离相关的情况）的影响，以及它们如何鼓励或阻碍不受COVID-19和类似病毒感染的安全亲密关系。它将提供有关如何在实施社交距离措施期间和之后利用基于互联网的服务来支持人们的社会和情感需求以及更安全的亲密关系的知识。研究人员将在整个项目中与服务提供者和社区代表合作，以确定适合不同亲密文化的虚拟干预措施，并在社会距离和病毒风险增加的背景下促进个人恢复力和“更安全”的亲密关系。该研究将包括与专家合作伙伴小组进行的第一轮在线研讨会，探讨他们如何：在2019冠状病毒病期间看待与虚拟约会相关的亲密可能性和风险；开展在线支持活动；并对任何增加的服务需求水平作出反应。该小组将对研究的设计、开展和分析提供建议，由约会应用企业、服务提供商、社区代表和国际研究专家和学者的代表组成。该项目将结合全国在线调查（n= 600）和深度在线定性访谈（n=60）。封闭式调查问题将使人口统计数据的收集和成人恢复力测量（ARM-R）的部署成为可能，该测量由达尔豪斯大学恢复力研究中心开发，以提供有关恢复力的数据。公开调查问题将产生关于在COVID-19时代使用约会应用程序对对抗或增强社会孤立感和亲密脱节感的自我认知的数据，以及对协商病毒风险的影响。虚拟半结构化访谈将生成关于COVID-19之前和之后的不同文化和亲密行为的数据；社会距离为维持现有的和发展新的亲密行为和文化所带来的可能性和挑战；病毒风险协商中涉及的虚拟互动；随着时间的推移，个人恢复力的涨落与约会应用的使用有关。这些访谈将产生关于LGBT和异性恋者在脱离社交距离和封锁之前、期间和期间使用约会应用程序的经历的数据。这一重点的理由是，现有研究表明，女同性恋者、男同性恋者、双性恋者、跨性别者和异性恋者在亲密行为、约会规范、线上/线下亲密行为方面有着不同的文化，对病毒风险可能有不同的看法（例如，男同性恋者可能更了解艾滋病毒），这些风险会影响他们在网上的亲密行为，并以多维方式与他们在线下对风险的谈判联系在一起。从一开始，该项目就将与其专家伙伴小组合作，确定在社会保持距离期间可以开发和/或过渡到在线服务提供的亲密关系支持服务，重点是满足不同的亲密关系文化，因为这些文化是由性别、性行为与与地理、世代、种族和经济位置相关的社会文化定位相互作用形成的。

This project examines lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans (LGBT) and heterosexual people's use of online dating apps to negotiate intimacy (i.e. emotional and/or physical closeness) during and after COVID-19 social distance and lockdowns. It focuses on how diverse sexual and gendered cultures of intimacy are facilitated or constrained by dating apps during and after COVID-19, the implications of the existing and new intimate practices associated with dating apps for supporting personal resilience (i.e. people's ability to cope with difficult situations, such as those associated with COVID-19 lockdowns and social distance) , and how they encourage or discourage intimacy that is safe from COVID-19 and similar viral infections. It will generate knowledge about how internet-based services can be harnessed to support people's social and emotional needs, as well as safer intimacies, during and after the implementation of social distance measures. The researchers will collaborate with service providers and community representatives throughout the project to identify virtual interventions as appropriate to diverse intimate cultures and to promote personal resilience and 'safer' intimacy in the context of social distance and heightened viral risk. The study will include an initial round of online workshops with an expert partner group to explore how they: view the intimate possibilities and risks associated with virtual dating during COVID-19; have developed support activities online; and responded to any increase to the level of service demand. The group will advise on the design, undertaking and analysis of the research, and will be composed by representatives from dating app businesses, service providers, community representatives and international research experts and scholars. The project will combine a nationwide online survey (n= 600 approx.) with in-depth online qualitative interviews (n=60). Closed survey questions will enable the gathering of demographic data and the deployment of the Adult Resilience Measure (ARM-R), as developed by Resilience Research Centre, Dalhousie University, to provide data on resilience. Open survey questions will generate data on self-perceptions of the implications of dating app use for countering or enhancing a sense of social isolation and intimate disconnectedness during the COVID-19 era, as well as the implications for negotiating viral risk. Virtual semi-structured interviews will generate data about diverse cultures and practices of intimacy pre- and post COVID-19; the possibilities and challenges presented by social distance for maintaining existing and developing new practices and cultures of intimacy; the virtual interactions involved in the negotiation of viral risk; and the ebb and flow of personal resilience as it links to dating app use over time. The interviews will generate data on LGBT and heterosexual experiences of using dating apps before, during and in transitioning out of social distance and lockdowns. The rationale for this focus is that the existing research suggests that lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, trans and heterosexuals have different cultures of intimacy, dating norms, online/offline practices of intimacy, and can have distinctive perceptions of viral risks (e.g. gay men are likely to be more informed about HIV) that influence their intimate practices online and are linked in multi-dimensional ways to their negotiation of risks offline. From the outset, the project will work with its expert partners group to determine what support services for intimate relations can be developed and/or transitioned to online service delivery during times of social distancing, with an emphasis of catering for diverse intimate cultures as they are shaped by gendered sexualities in interaction with socio-cultural positioning linked to geography, generation, racial and economic location.