Journal article
The impact of experiences of ageism on sexual interest and expression in later life
Wendy Heywood, Victor Minichiello, Anthony Lyons, B Fileborn, R Hussain, Sharon Hinchliff, Sue Malta, Catherine Barrett, Briony Dow
Ageing and Society | Cambridge University Press (CUP) | Published : 2019
Abstract
Experiences of ageism are associated with poorer health outcomes. Sexual activity and interest are areas in life where the impact of ageism may also be evident as popular culture often depicts the older body as asexual, undesirable or sexually impotent. We explore the possible links between experiences of ageism and sexual activity/interest in later life using data from a study of Australians aged 60+. We explored characteristics of those who were more likely to have experienced ageism (measured using the Ageism Survey) and the relationships between experiences of ageism and measures of sexual interest/activity in later life (N = 1,817). Experiences of ageism were greater among those without..
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Awarded by Australian Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge Graham Brown and Pauline Crameri for their contributions to this project and thank the community organisations and individuals who either gave feedback on the study or who helped with promoting the study. We would also like to thank the participants who completed the survey. This work was supported by the Australian Research Council (grant number DP150100739). The funder played no role in the design, execution, analysis and interpretation of the data, or writing of the manuscript. This study was approved by the La Trobe University Human Ethics Committee. All authors declare no conflicts of interest.