Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Social & Behavioral Health Program, School of Public Health, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
Department of Gerontology, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Gerontologist. 2022 Oct 19;62(9):1324-1335. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnac021.
Understanding the influence of social resources on health is crucial in gerontological research. However, access to social resources may differ by one's particular lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) identity and the intersection of LGBT identity with other sociodemographic characteristics, including age.
Using 2010 data from Caring and Aging With Pride (N = 2,536), this study examined how access to social resources varied by LGBT identity and whether the effect of LGBT identity was modified by additional sociodemographic characteristics among LGBT adults aged 50-95 years.
Lesbian respondents had larger social networks than gay male respondents, and gay male respondents had smaller networks than transgender respondents. Lesbian respondents reported more social support and community belonging than other identity groups. Bisexual male respondents and transgender respondents had less support than gay male respondents, and bisexual male respondents reported less community belonging than gay male respondents. Age and education moderated the association between LGBT identity and social support.
This study demonstrated differences in access to social resources according to environmental circumstances that can intersect and govern access to social resources. Findings highlight the importance of considering social support separately from social network size; thus, large social networks do not necessarily provide ample social support. LGBT older adults had different perceptions of social support than their middle-aged counterparts. Health and human service professionals should not only consider the sexual and gender identity of their LGBT clients, but also education and age when assessing access to social resources.
理解社会资源对健康的影响在老年学研究中至关重要。然而，获得社会资源的机会可能因个体特定的同性恋、双性恋、跨性别（LGBT）身份以及 LGBT 身份与其他社会人口特征（包括年龄）的交叉而有所不同。
本研究使用了 2010 年来自“关爱与自豪地老去”（Caring and Aging With Pride）的数据（N=2536），考察了 LGBT 身份对社会资源获取的影响，以及 LGBT 成年人（年龄在 50-95 岁之间）的其他社会人口特征是否会改变 LGBT 身份的影响。
女同性恋者的社交网络比男同性恋者大，而男同性恋者的社交网络比跨性别者小。女同性恋者比其他身份群体报告了更多的社会支持和社区归属感。双性恋男性受访者和跨性别受访者比男同性恋者获得的支持少，而双性恋男性受访者比男同性恋者报告的社区归属感低。年龄和教育程度调节了 LGBT 身份与社会支持之间的关系。
本研究根据可能交叉并影响社会资源获取的环境情况，展示了社会资源获取方面的差异。研究结果强调了将社会支持与社交网络大小分开考虑的重要性；因此，大的社交网络不一定能提供足够的社会支持。与中年时期相比，老年 LGBT 成年人对社会支持的看法不同。健康和人类服务专业人员在评估社会资源获取时，不仅应考虑其 LGBT 客户的性和性别认同，还应考虑其教育程度和年龄。
