Psychological Well-being and the Adult
Life Course in Gay Men
Principal Investigator: Robert M.
Kertzner, M.D.
Introduction
This exploratory study of 30 self-identified gay men between the
ages of 40 and 51 investigated perceptions of aging, changes in the
subjective experience of homosexual identity and broader
psychosocial identity, the impact of HIV/AIDS on respondents' lives,
and psychological health and life satisfaction in the context of
life transitions in middle age. A guided interview was administered
along with standardized measures of self-esteem, life satisfaction,
happiness, depressed mood, and degree of resolution of Eriksonian
psychosocial stage; in addition, assessments of commitment to
homosexual identity, social participation in the gay community, and
worry about getting older were included among the study measures.
The study builds on previous work in the fields of adult development
and the adult life course, the psychosocial impact of the HIV/AIDS
epidemic on gay men's lives, and gerontology as applied to the lives
of lesbians and gay men. Of note, little research has studied
transitions in psychological and psychosocial identity in gay men as
they move out of young adulthood and into the more poorly chartered
social and personal terrain of middle age.
Results
Study results suggest the importance of achieving coherence and
reconciliation in life review, two themes derived from qualitative
data analysis, which were related to increased life satisfaction,
Eriksonian Identity and Generativity, and, inversely, commitment to
homosexual identity and worry about growing old. Subjective meanings
of homosexual identity (i.e., the importance, centrality,
significance of homosexual identity in life review and in current
self-appraisal) varied among respondents, reflecting the influence
of social context, life circumstance, and individual history; other
than a subset of respondents who reported significant past or
present mental health difficulties and who seemed more likely to
describe their sexuality as problematic, typologies characterizing
respondents' integration of homosexual identity into their
overarching life narratives seemed less closely linked to specific
profiles of psychological health.
Discussion
Methodological constraints in study design, i.e.,
non-representative sampling, small cohort size, cross-sectional
assessment, and the need for multiple raters of qualitative data,
limit generalizations that can be made to larger and more diverse
populations of gay men. In addition, important age cohort effects
including the emergence of the HIV epidemic may render this cohorts'
experience of middle age different from that of earlier and later
generations of midlife gay men. Further research is needed to
systematically study the adult life course in gay men and to explore
relationships among life history, personal identity, and
psychological health.
Selected Publications
Kertzner R.M., Sved M.: Midlife Gay Men and Lesbians: Adult
Development and Mental Health. Textbook of Homosexuality and Mental
Health. Edited by Cabaj R.P., Stein T.S. Washington, D.C., American
Psychiatric Press, Inc 1996, pp 289 - 304
Kertzner R.M.: Entering Midlife: Gay Men, HIV, and the Future.
Journal of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association. 1(2):87-95, 1997
Kertzner R.M.: Adult Development and Mental Health in Lesbians
and Gay Men: Is Middle Age Necessary? in A Queer World. Edited by
Duberman M., New York, New York University Press 1997, pp 601 - 614
Kertzner R.M.: Self-appraisal of life experience and
psychological adjustment in midlife gay men. Journal of Psychology
and Human Sexuality, 11(2):43-64, 1999
Kertzner R. Gay Men and Midlife Development: A Focus on Change in
Sexual Identity. Proceedings of the International Academy of Sex
Research, Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting, Paris, France, 2000, p. 37
Kertzner R.M.: Demystifying
gay adulthood, the Networker, 1(1): 2000. |
