Sexuality and Aging

 I am involved in two lines of research examining sexuality and aging.

First, I collaborated with my doctoral student Krystelle Shaughnessy, Dr. Lucia O’Sullivan (Psychology), and her doctoral student Ashley Thompson, on a study of attitudes toward sexuality and aging. Researchers find that, when asked, people generally indicate that they hold positive attitudes towards sexual expression in older adults (Aizenberg, Weizman, Barak; 2002; Bouman & Arcelus, 2001; Hordern & Currow, 2003). However, people do not tend to act on these positive attitudes. For example, researchers have found that health care staff who report positive attitudes toward sexuality and aging nonetheless avoid talking about sex with their older patients, indicating a disconnect between attitudes and behaviour (Burd, Nevadunsky, & Bachmann, 2006; Gott, Hinchliff, Galena, 2004). One reason for  this disconnect may be the reliance on self-report measures of explicit attitudes. Explicit attitudes refer to those attitudes that we can articulate, they require effort in thinking about and forming them, and people may give the socially acceptable response rather than their true feelings (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995). Explicit attitudes are considered particularly problematic when addressing socially sensitive topics, such as attitudes towards sexuality and aging because people do not want to appear to have negative attitudes. In contrast, implicit attitudes are involuntary and effortless responses to stimuli occurring outside of conscious awareness (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995). 

Therefore, we conducted a  study  to assess implicit attitudes towards sexuality of older adults. A sample of 120 participants (18-24 years old; 58% female) completed self-report (explicit) sex and aging attitudinal measures and a series of Implicit Association Test protocols designed to captue related attitudes beyond their conscious awareness. Despite reporting positive explicit attitudes toward the sexuality of older adults, young people revealed negative implicit attitudes. Moreover, young people's unpleasant associations with sexual matters, rather than aging, best explained the significant negative bias in their reactions toward the sexuality of older adults. A manuscript based on this work is published on-line first in the Canadian Journal on Aging/La Revue Canadienne due viellissement.

I am also conducting a study on sexual satisfaction in older adults with my postdoctoral student, Dr. Pablo Santos-Iglesias. Data analysis is currently underway.

The following publication and presentations are based on this work:

     Thompson, A., O'Sullivan, L., Byers, E. S., & Shaughnessy, K. (2014). College students' implicit and explicit attitudes toward the sexuality of older adults. Canadian Journal on Aging/La Revue Canadienne du viellissement, 33, 259-270. DOI: 10.1017/S0714980814000208.

     Santos-Iglesias, P., Byers, E. S., & Moglia, R. (2015, October). Sexual well-being of older men and women. Paper presented at the meeting of the Canadian Sex Research Forum, Kelowna, BC.

     Thompson, A., Shaughnessy, K., O’Sullivan, L., & Byers, E. S. (2011, September). Are your biases showing? An IAT test of students' implicit attitudes toward sex among the elderly. Paper presented at the meeting of the Canadian Sex Research Forum, Vancouver.

       Thompson, A. E., O'Sullivan, L. F., Byers, E. S., & Shaughnessy, K. (2013,  June). Young adults' implicit and explicit attitudes toward sex among older adults. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Psychological Association, Quebec City.