adult life course and homosexual identity in midlife gay men, The

In recognition of the key effects of gender in shaping the subjective experience of life course change and homosexual identity (Gilligan, 1982; Kimmel & Sang, 1995), I will limit discussion of homosexual identity and adulthood to gay men, although the common experience of developing a stigmatized sexual orientation and many of its implications for homosexual identity maintenance throughout adulthood may also apply to lesbians.

For purposes of this paper, middle age is defined as the span between 40 and 60 years of age. The age boundaries for midlife are arguable and to some extent arbitrary, with social class and cultural background affecting perceptions of when middle age begins and ends (Chiriboga, 1981), but in a recent probability survey of U.S. adults, male respondents perceived middle age as starting at age 43 and ending at age 59, with no differences in these estimates by sexual orientation (unpublished data, Brim et al., 1996). Given the November, 2000, estimate of approximately 36 million men in the U.S. between 40 and 60 years of age (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000) and a 2.8% prevalence of homosexuality among U.S. men based on the criteria of self-identification (Laumann et al., 1994), slightly over one million men in the United States are homosexually-identified and between the ages of 40 and 60.

Midlife Development

Midlife Development in the General Population

The literature on midlife development, although generally blind to sexual orientation, describes significant change in social, psychological, and psychosexual realms of life experience during middle age (Erikson, 1963; Levinson, 1980; Neugarten, 1968; Ryff, 1984; Stevens-Long, 1990). Although a full review of the adult developmental literature is beyond the scope of this paper, several key points warrant mention in light of the current focus. In the existential realm of experience, middle age is associated with an increased awareness of less time remaining in life and an enhanced personalization of mortality (Colarusso & Nemiroff, 1981). The presentiment of death, a unique human endowment, results in an increasing need to review life experience and to fashion a narrative of experience that coherently tells a life history (Cohler & Galatzer-Levy, 1990). Middle-aged adults increasingly perceive themselves and their relationship to the social world with greater cognitive complexity and a heightened appreciation of paradox, ambivalence, and uncertainty in life (Stevens-Long, 1990). Earlier identification with social groups may be revised or rejected, accompanied by the emergence of more idiosyncratic views of the self (Levinson, 1978). Despite a greater range and complexity of social roles in middle age compared to young and late adulthood, midlife adults experience a gradual psychological disengagement from, and decreasing identification with, the world of the young (Neugarten, 1968).

Psychosexual development in middle-aged and older adults is influenced by biological and socialization processes associated with aging, psychosocial adaptation to changes in physical health and sexual function, and the relational aspects of long-term marriages. Schiavi (1999) reported declines in sexual interest, arousal, and activity, but not sexual satisfaction, in a cohort of men over 40 years of age and discussed this finding in terms of age-related decreases in expectations about sexual activity and the increasing importance of relationships over time. In an exploration of the subjective meanings of sex for older adults, Levy (1994) found evidence that older adults experienced sex as equally satisfying as when they were younger, but with more frequent nongenital contact, greater flexibility in gender roles, and increased emphasis on intimacy and relatedness to their partners. Aging is also associated with anxieties about sexual adequacy and performative capacity in men, particularly in societies that promote youthful sexualized lifestyles (Schiavi, 1999). In addition, adults, not uncommonly, struggle to adapt earlier sexual scripts rooted in adolescence and young adulthood to the changed circumstances of later years, creating potential problems in sexual adjustment and mental health (Simon & Gagnon, 1986).