Umberson Debra, Thomeer Mieke Beth, Reczek Corinne, Donnelly Rachel
University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL, USA.
J Health Soc Behav. 2016 Dec;57(4):517-531. doi: 10.1177/0022146516671570. Epub 2016 Oct 31.
The inclusion of same-sex married couples can illuminate and challenge assumptions about gender that are routinely taken for granted in studies of physical illness. We analyze gender dynamics in gay, lesbian, and heterosexual marriages with in-depth interview data from 90 spouses (45 couples) to consider how spouses co-construct illness experiences in ways that shape relationship dynamics. Overall, findings indicate that men tend to downplay illness and thus provide minimal care work, whereas women tend to construct illness as immersive and involving intensive care work-in both same-sex and different-sex marriages. Yet same-sex spouses describe similar constructions of illness much more so than different-sex couples, and as such, same-sex spouses describe less illness-related disagreement and stress. These findings help inform policies to support the health of gay and lesbian, as well as heterosexual, patients and their spouses, an important goal given health disparities of gay and lesbian populations.
将同性已婚伴侣纳入研究可以揭示并挑战在身体疾病研究中通常被视为理所当然的关于性别的假设。我们利用来自90位配偶（45对夫妻）的深入访谈数据，分析了男同性恋、女同性恋和异性婚姻中的性别动态，以探讨配偶如何以塑造关系动态的方式共同构建疾病体验。总体而言，研究结果表明，男性往往淡化疾病，因此提供的护理工作极少，而女性则倾向于将疾病构建为沉浸式的且涉及大量护理工作——在同性婚姻和异性婚姻中皆是如此。然而，与异性伴侣相比，同性配偶对疾病的描述更为相似，因此，同性配偶描述的与疾病相关的分歧和压力更少。这些发现有助于为支持男同性恋、女同性恋以及异性恋患者及其配偶的健康的政策提供信息，鉴于男同性恋和女同性恋人群的健康差异，这是一个重要目标。
