SEXUALITY AND AGING: TWO ATTITUDINAL STUDIES
Attitudes towards one’s own sexuality and perceived age-appropriate aspects of sexual behavior certainly are important determinants of activity levels at every age. The cultural stereotype of old people as sexless probably contributes to depressed sexual activity (Rubin). Pfeiffer commented that he found it quite difficult to obtain old-age subjects for studies of sexual attitudes and activity, mainly because younger members of their families felt that it was inappropriate for them to participate!
A survey by Harris indicates that both old people (over sixty-five) and younger people have similar views on sexuality for people over sixty-five. Although 41% of the general public (all ages) saw most people over sixty-five as very physically active, only 5% saw them as very sexually active. When asked how they perceived themselves, males were more likely than females to say that they were very sexually active. Fifty-one percent of the respondents from eighteen to fifty-four and 27% from ages fifty-five to sixty-four characterized themselves as having a high level of sexual activity. After the age of sixty-five, this figure declined to 11% (16% for males and 7% for females).
Snyder and Spreitzer investigated attitudes of 1,020 respondents under sixty-five and 235 sixty years and older toward so-called nontraditional sexual behavior (premarital and extramarital sex and homosexuality). Responses to questions on these topics were put on a four-point scale ranging from always wrong to not wrong at all. The percentage differences between age groups on the always wrong response (indicating the highest degree of intolerance) were tabulated for six demographic variables: sex, education, occupation, number of children, marital status, and church attendance. In general, older people were less permissive and less approving than younger people for all behaviors. The difference in proportion of respondents disapproving of premarital sex was greater (30%) than for either of the other two behaviors (extramarital sex and homosexuality were 19% and 18%, respectively). Age was a stronger predictor of attitudes than any of the other variables, but age did not account for all of the intersubject variability. There were wide variations among people sixty-five and older which could be explained by social background characteristics. As in any cross-sectional study, some of the differences which appear to be age-related may in fact be generational.
*110/187/5*
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