Psychological well-being in older homosexual and bisexual men
Kertzner, R.M., Dolezal C. HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York NY, USA
A multi-dimensional model of psychological health in homosexual and bisexual men over forty may help tease apart reciprocal socio-cultural and individual mental heath influences on subjective reports of well-being in this population. These influences include heterosexually-oriented social age norms; age norms within gay sexual culture; more universal aspects of psychological change associated with aging; and the expression of underlying psychiatric diatheses, when present. Previous studies report levels of self-acceptance in older gay men that were comparable to heterosexual peers and higher than in young gay men, although these findings were based on convenience samples.
In a secondary data analysis of a probability sample study of midlife development in adults in the United States (the MIDUS survey), the authors examined the effects of sexual orientation and age on six dimensions of psychological well-being in men, adjusting for education, income, partnership status, self-reported health status, and depressive symptomatology. Classification of sexual orientation was based on whether respondents were attracted to women, men, or both (N=1730 heterosexual, 31 homosexual and 26 bisexual men); for data analytic purposes, the homosexual and bisexual groups were combined. The main outcome variable in this analysis was Ryff’s assessment of psychological well-being, comprised of subscales measuring personal autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, positive relations with others, sense of purpose in life, and self-acceptance (Ryff, 1989). In multiple linear regression analyses, interactive effects of homosexual/bisexual status and older age (> 40 years of age) predicted lower scores on two dimensions of psychological well-being, sense of purpose in life and self-acceptance; these effects remained significant after adjusting for the above co-variates (sense of purpose in life, Beta -.068 [p .03]; self-acceptance, Beta -.063 [p .04]).
These findings suggest that in a sample of homosexual and bisexual men defined by sexual attraction, older age is associated with less sense of purpose in life and self-acceptance. These results should be interpreted with consideration of how sexual orientation was defined, the inclusion of homosexual and bisexual men together for data analytic purposes, generational age-cohort effects, and modest effect sizes. Nonetheless, sexual orientation together with age may be an important factor influencing dimensions of psychological well-being which are sensitive to age norms that define valued social identities and roles.
