Minority Stress in Older Portuguese Gay and Bisexual Men and Its Impact on Sexual and Relationship Satisfaction

Loneliness, Social Support, and Adjustment to Aging in Older Portuguese Gay Men

“…It is composed by 8 items (e.g., "You feel a bond with the LGBT community") and measured on a four-point scale (from 1 "completely disagree" to 4 "completely agree"). The original 8-item scale was previously translated and adapted using a Portuguese sample of older adults, which corroborate the original structure (Ribeiro- Gonçalves et al, 2019). In the current study, Cronbach's alpha was high (α = 0.91).…”

“…Place of residence, marital status, education level, income, employment status, and living situation were measured as ordinal variables, and response categories are identified on Table 1. Sexual identity and gender were presented as open-ended questions and categorized later, as we have done in previous research (Gonçalves et al, 2019;Ribeiro-Gonçalves et al, 2019), allowing people to freely describe their identity.…”

“…It would be valuable to focus on adaptive and active strategies, psychological well-being, and engagement with significant others (von Humboldt & Leal, 2014), especially among older gay men; such research would deepen our understanding of both predictors and attributes of loneliness in this population. This is particularly the case in Portugal, where very few papers were found in the field of aging among sexual and gender minorities (Gonçalves et al, 2018(Gonçalves et al, , 2019Marques & Sousa, 2016;Pereira et al, , 2019aPereira et al, , 2019b. Negative social environments in Portugal (notwithstanding a more progressive legislative approach to equality and inclusion) may well affect the psychosocial lives of older gay men living therein.…”

Adult Attachment, Differentiation of Self, and Relationship Satisfaction in Lesbians and Gay Men

“…Taken together, these research findings indicate the relevance of deeply understanding the association between adult attachment and relationship satisfaction in Italian sexual minority populations, taking into account the stated influence of minority stress on adult attachment and relationship satisfaction (e.g., Sommantico et al 2018;Cao et al 2017;Cook and Calebs 2016;LeBlanc et al 2015;Gonçalves et al 2020;Fassinger 2003, 2006;Popa-Velea et al 2019;Šević et al 2016;Wright 2020). We can do so by focusing in particular on the role played by differentiation of self, a variable whose role has never been analyzed in sexual minority populations.…”

“…In line with previous studies (e.g., Sommantico et al 2019Sommantico et al , 2020Mohr and Fassinger 2006;Mohr et al 2013;Roisman et al 2008), our findings indicate that lesbian participants showed lower levels of anxious attachment styles than gay men, while also reporting higher levels of relationship satisfaction. We can hypothesize that, especially in the Italian context, which is characterized by strong sexism and by an ambivalent attitude toward the LGBT population (e.g., Lingiardi et al 2005Lingiardi et al , 2016Petrocchi et al 2020;Scierri and Batini 2020), it is possible that lesbians are less exposed than gay men to sexual stigma, which more negatively influence gay men's well-being and relationship satisfaction (e.g., Sommantico et al 2018Sommantico et al , 2020Cao et al 2017;Gonçalves et al 2020;LeBlanc et al 2015). Contrary to previous studies (e.g., Stearns and Sabini 1997), younger people reported higher levels of relationship satisfaction in our sample.…”