Aging and Sexuality

The population growth rate for older adults has rapidly exceeded the growthrate of the United States population as a whole. Despite these demographicchanges, there is a paucity of research that explores sexual health amongolder individuals. Sexuality has been described as a multidimensional andholistic phenomenon with biological, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, andsocial components. Few empirical studies have examined factors that affectolder adults' experience of changes in sexuality and life quality on amultidimensional level. To more clearly understand aspects of sexual healthamong older adults, there is a need to examine components of sexuality froma biopsychosocial, or interrelated, perspective. The purpose of this study wasto investigate the impact of sociological, cultural, and psychological factorsto further explain variance beyond biological changes that influence thepotentialities of aging, sexual health, and overall quality of life. Data werecollected using a mixed-mode approach to optimize participant response andcoverage. Residents of a large active retirement community served as thestudy participants. Overall findings add to the existing body of literature onaging and sexuality. This book is addressed to scholars, professionals,practitioners, educators, counselors, therapists, students, and laypersons.