ABSTRACT

In long-term care facilities where older adults may reside, negative attitudes about later life sexuality can result in restrictive facility policies and staff behaviors that suppress residents’ rights to sexual expression. No assessment instrument specifically focuses on the sexual behaviors of long-term care residents and existing measures of attitudes toward older adult sexuality do not include sexual expression in long term care, nor do they assess a full range of sexual behaviors. We developed the Attitudes toward Older Adult Sexuality in Long-term Care Scale (AOASLC). A large, diverse sample of 295 community-dwelling adults in the United States completed an online survey through Amazon Mechanical Turk. The survey included the AOASLC and self-report measures of related constructs. Two-hundred-and-ninety-five participants completed the survey (M_age = 49.16, SD = 14.69, range = 18– 84 years). Of the sample, 50.2% identified as female, 49.5% identified as male, and one person identified as transgender male. An exploratory factor analysis indicated a two-factor structure. Factor 1 represented general attitudes toward sexual behaviors, and Factor 2 represented acceptability of various sexual behaviors. The instrument evidenced good reliability and validity. While further validation research is necessary, the AOASLC is a promising new measure.

摘要

在老年人可能居住的长期护理机构中，对晚年性行为的消极态度可能导致限制性机构政策和工作人员行为压制居民的性表达权利。没有评估工具专门关注长期护理居民的性行为，现有的对老年人性行为态度的衡量标准不包括长期护理中的性表达，也没有评估全方位的性行为。我们制定了长期护理量表 (AOASLC) 中对老年人性行为的态度。美国 295 名居住在社区的成年人组成的大型多元化样本通过 Amazon Mechanical Turk 完成了一项在线调查。该调查包括 AOASLC 和相关结构的自我报告措施。295 名参与者完成了调查（M_年龄 = 49.16，SD  = 14.69，范围 = 18–84 岁）。在样本中，50.2% 的人被认定为女性，49.5% 的人被认定为男性，1 人被认定为跨性别男性。探索性因素分析表明是双因素结构。因素 1 代表对性行为的一般态度，因素 2 代表各种性行为的可接受性。该量表具有良好的信度和效度。虽然需要进一步的验证研究，但 AOASLC 是一项很有前途的新措施。