Richard Colleen Anne, Hamilton Brown Alison
Tunxis Commmunity College, 271 Scott Swamp Rd, Farmington, CT 06032, USA.
J Women Aging. 2006;18(4):49-65. doi: 10.1300/J074v18n04_05.
Limited research has been conducted on the needs and concerns of older lesbians in the American population. The purpose of this paper is to present findings from a qualitative study of older (aged 55 and older) lesbians' experiences of and perspectives on aging, with a focus on their discussions of social support. Through an in-depth qualitative study with 25 older lesbians, we found that aging lesbians may be less likely to access formal social services due to perceptions of bias within the services and a potential lack of connection with those who do use services. However, participants were creative at formulating informal networks of support. Four heuristic categories (empowered, secure, independent, and precarious) of informal social support were developed to characterize the various ways in which participants configured their support systems. Social support within each category was conceptualized both in terms of intentionality and degree of connectedness. Being partnered did not necessarily equate with a strong sense of social support. Further research needs to be conducted on older lesbians in order to better characterize and respond to their needs as they age.
针对美国老年女同性恋者的需求和担忧所开展的研究有限。本文旨在呈现一项定性研究的结果，该研究聚焦于55岁及以上老年女同性恋者对衰老的体验和看法，重点关注她们对社会支持的讨论。通过对25名老年女同性恋者进行深入的定性研究，我们发现，由于察觉到服务中的偏见以及可能与实际使用服务的人群缺乏联系，老年女同性恋者获得正式社会服务的可能性可能较低。然而，参与者在构建非正式支持网络方面很有创造性。我们提出了四种启发式的非正式社会支持类别（赋权型、安全型、独立型和不稳定型），以描述参与者构建其支持系统的各种方式。每个类别中的社会支持都从意向性和联系程度两个方面进行了概念化。处于伴侣关系并不一定等同于有强烈的社会支持感。为了更好地描述老年女同性恋者衰老过程中的特征并满足其需求，需要对她们开展进一步的研究。
